The Core: Not All Heroes Die
by Eladriewen
Summary: The Core rewritten. I tried to stay true to the main story line while at the same time slapping it full in the face. I had lots of fun with this, and it's really not that bad. Please R&R? FINISHED!
1. Unexplained Deaths

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Author's Note: _Here it just goes to show that not everyone who goes out to save the world has to die in the process._

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Chapter One

Unexplained Deaths

Greenworld Day, Boston Massachusetts.

"It stopped." grumbled Dave, poking at his watch with frustration. 

"What's that, Dave?" his partner asked. 

"Nothing." He stood, buttoning up his suit. A well dressed female, another partner of there's, approached eagerly with a broad smile on her face. "How we doing?" Dave asked.

"Oh, we're ready!" she grinned.

"You feeling the magic?"

"Oh, I'm feeling the magic." Dave announced, the smile ever growing on his handsome face. "All right." he laughed, bringing up his fist. "Let's hit 'em!" Bringing their fists together in a sort of all for one and one for all salute, the trio started down the hall. 

"Here we go." said the woman.

"Let's hit 'em."

"Let's go make thirty million dollars." Dave whispered under his breath. 

Together they entered the board room where a bunch of well to do executives sat patiently waiting for them. Dave smiled. He was nervous, yet excited, and the possibility of thirty million hanging over his head ruled out the option to make any mistakes in this presentation. "Good morning." Dave smiled. Each of his partners took a stance behind him, very much willing to let Dave to the talking. "Before I begin..."

A slight pang in his chest suddenly made the room go fuzzy and dim. Dave tried to blink the feeling away. Today was his big day. Their big day! He couldn't falter now. But as he attempted to focus his eyes, he found there was nothing to focus on. The last thing Dave remembered was falling face first into the glass table before everything went black.

Outside, there was mass mayhem. Every few yards a person was found lying motionless on the ground, similar to Dave's fashion. Sirens were sounding every other block in a matter of moments. Car crashes, screams of panic, children crying, everything. Everywhere. 

A bus had crashed on a curb somewhere nearby, filled to the brim with frightened children. A shattered mitsubishi lie just in front of it. A few feet away from there was a small fender bender with three other cars. A few yards down the street to the bus's right, an oil tanker had collided with a small minivan. A crowd of people from the fair had gathered round to check on the drivers. A greyhound bus lie stuck on the curb like a beached whale as citizens ran through the streets trying to revive those who had collapsed on the sidewalks. 

On a curb outside of it all, a man held his hands wife. 

"What's happened?" she asked. He frowned, looking away.

"I don't know. Lets keep going."

__

University of Chicago

"Sound waves. So if we know that sound waves gain wavelength and lose frequency as they travel through more dense materials, then the anomalies in these waves are the means by which we can surmise the fundamental architecture of our planet." 

Doctor Joshua Keyes looked up from his blackboard to see an ocean of sleeping and bored students. He smiled. 

"How are the nails coming, Christine?" Immediately the girl sat up. Doctor Keyes laughed and turned back to the board. "Good. All right, let's have a demonstration. Mr. Acker, Veronica. Thank you very much." he took up a trumpet and began to blow. It certainly wasn't the greatest Jazz in all the world, and if one might have thought to even label the sound music they would have been butchered on the spot by even the least proficient music student.

"All right. Mrs. Limestone," he placed his hand on a large chunk of the mineral sitting atop a nearby table. "being a big softie, you know, loves walks in the park, bedtime stories, big romantic. Love Chet. I can't play Chet but I'll see what I can do." he turned his back to the class and pointed at the furthest corner of the table. Watch the oscilloscope, all right? Here we go."

He kneeled beside the rock and began to play the horrible sounds straight into the surface. The students believed that if it had been glass instead of limestone the element would have shattered, but fortunately that was not the case. Worry grew heavy, however, as two uniformed men with expressionless countenances entered the room.

"Dr. Joshua Keyes?" the less friendly looking of the two asked. Josh stood up again and immediately ceased his playing.

"Maybe." Keyes replied.

"Yes, or no, sir."

"The first one." he tried to look as innocent as possible. Suddenly he realized all those late night raids in his college days were probably not the best idea.

The man flashed a badge and the letters 'FBI' were most prominent on the I.D. next to it. _Crap._ Keyes thought.

"Guys, wh-whats going on?" Josh asked as they left the college premises. In his nervous state he could barely get his coat on much less look other students and co-workers in the eye as he was walked off the lot with these two men on each side of him.

"We don't know sir." said the first man. Apparently the other was incapable of speech. This information was also not helpful or encouraging to Keyes. 

"What do you mean, you don't know?"

"Your security clearance is higher than ours."

__

What? Josh thought. "I have security clearance?"

"We're just here to bring you to your jet."

"I have a jet!?"

__

Washington D.C.

Josh was lead down into a cellar like entrance where he could hear whispers from the other side of the barred door. _Who the hell am I now, 007?_ He thought to himself. Flashing his badge as the officer before him did, the only one who ever said anything, Josh then slipped it over his neck and tried to look important as possible. That changed however when he heard that those whispers were actually shouts of French anger. An elderly man with graying hair was beating the crap out of a Pepsi dispenser, cursing in his own tongue carelessly while slapping his palm against the plastic surface.

"Hey, Serge!" Josh called out in humor, a wide grin spread quickly across his face. When the man didn't respond, he tried again. 

"Ah!" 

"Serge."

"Damn!" Serge hissed, kicking it now.

"Serge."

The man turned around. Not smiling but looking horribly frustrated. His glistening eyes turned accusingly to the FBI agent that had lead Josh to the underground rats nest they had found themselves in.

"It's about time. You're always late." At last Serge saw Josh and smiled brightly. They embraced warmly as each laughed at the other. 

"Let's keep moving, gentleman." the agent stated.

With a slight hesitance they pulled apart.

"What am I doing here?" Serge asked Josh more than the agents. "They wouldn't brief me until you got here. You know, there are biochemists everywhere, military. I hate them." Josh could not help but laugh some more. "When are you going to meet a nice girl and bring her for dinner?" Serge asked again, playfully brushing the side of Josh's face.

"I'm married to my work." Josh admitted honestly, the grin or the sparkle at seeing an old friend hardly leaving his eyes. 

"So am I." said Serge as though this were nothing. "Which makes my wife my mistress..." he leaned in closer to Josh's ear. "That is why I'm still on love with her."

A door opened for them at the end of the long corridor through which they had been lead. Josh and Serge entered through, oblivious to the fact that they were now alone in a large room filled with tables laden with covered supplies.

"You were always a romantic." Josh accused playfully.

"I love my wife!" Serge defended with a grin.

"Yeah I know. I love your wife, too."

"I know." Serge laughed.

"But I don't love your wife. You know what I mean."

"You don't love her the same way, you know."

"It's the French. I think its the cheese."

"Ah, the cheese!" Serge laughed as they stopped walking after a while. Josh leaned against a table and smiled. "You're...you're teasing me, right?"

But Josh didn't get a change to answer. Serge's eyes went wide with horror as he pointed to the table in which Josh had been leaning against. Looking down the young geophysicist saw a limp human arm now hanging from the table.

"Oh, my..." he moved away as quickly as possible, Serge moved with him. Each surveyed the laden, covered tables with fear and suspicion. "Whoa. Wait, these are bodies!" Josh proclaimed. 

"I think we're in the wrong place here." said Serge with some concern.

"Yeah, we're in the wrong place."

"No." came an arrogant voice from the opposite wall. "If you were in the wrong place you'd have already been shot."

"That's a hell of a greeting." Serge smiled oddly, not feeling comfortable in his surroundings or some of his company.

"Surge."

"Serge."

"Serge." The officer corrected as they shook hands. "Yes. Always a pleasure."

"Same here, Thomas. Doctor Keyes." Serge turned to introduce his young friend to the officer. 

"I know." said Josh in a rather quiet voice.

"Tom Purcell." They shook hands. "Gentleman you do realize that everything here is totally classified, okay?"

Josh nodded, exchanged glances with Serge, and moved up the isles with the two older men.

"At 10:30am local time, thirty two civilians all with a ten block radius...died. They didn't get sick first. They simply hit the ground dead."

"Nerve agent?" Serge asked.

"Our first guess. No."

"They all died at the same time?" came Josh.

"As far as we can tell, to the second. This hit CNN in one hour. I need a reason."

"Is there a variation in sex, age, body type?" Serge tried once more.

"They all had pacemakers." Josh stated.

"Under a minute." Purcell's eyebrows raised. "Your reputation is well deserved."

He pulled back the blanket on one body, causing Josh to step back in disgust, protesting that there was no need to view the victims. "Hey, hey, hey!"

"How did you guess? Without any clues from the victims."

"No that's..." he was trying really hard to not look at the dead body. "Serge and I are the clues. I mean, he specializes in high energy weapons. I do geomagnetics. So calling us means you suspect an electromagnetic pulse weapon. If these are the only fatalities then they must be people susceptible to electronic interference."

"QED pacemakers." said Serge, nodding his head and turning his gaze to Josh. "You are spooky sometimes, eh?"

"Now I need to know," Purcell came in between their conversation. "did some sort of weapon kill these people?"

"The power you would need to create an EM pulse strong enough I mean, that's...that's not a weapon that I've ever heard of."

"No." Serge came in.

"Okay, we're done." Purcell nodded his head and began to walk away.

"We're not done sir." Josh protested, following with Serge at his side. "There's nothing on the other side of the equals sign."

"I agree with Joshua..." Serge began.

"Thank you!" Purcell interjected once again. "Out greatest concern was this may have been an act of war, but since its not I think we can all breathe a little easier, can't we?"

Josh stopped. The frown and the look of utter perplexity had not left his face. Purcell continued on with Serge following. Had he looked back he might have seen his young friend surveying the room once more, as if his answer was written somewhere in the walls.

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Author's Note:_ Correct to the line, I know. No changes so far, but they'll come in later. It's a pain in the butt stopping a movie ever few seconds. Thank God for the luxuries of the pause button and subtitles._


	2. Frenzied Birds

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Author's Note: _Wow, a reviewed already. Nice. Thanks!_

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Chapter Two

Frenzied Birds

Trafalgar Square, London

The day was absolutely gorgeous, though slightly cloudy with some drizzle here and there. A touring American man with his wife and son were enjoying the scenery, the birds, and the day just fine despite such desolate conditions.

"Look at my hat." his wife smiled, tilting her head at all different angles. Holding a camera, her husband worked in the scenes and his wife at the same time. Suddenly the camera went blank for a second. He turned it to their son, Justin, then to a few people walking in the street, than a flock of birds taking flight. 

His wife, with a content smile, turned and saw Justin frowning, looking out across the lot.

"What is it, sweetheart?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. Justin said nothing, only pointed. A dead bird lie in the street, it's neck broken, feathers still rustling in the wind. The boy looked to his father for an explanation. He leaned down.

"It's okay son. These things happen all the time and..." but he was cut short as another bird flew headlong into a cement sculpture next to him and fell dead to the ground. Another, another, and another followed. Justin looked around in fright. This wasn't fun. 

Soon large flocks were taking to the skies, flying around in frenzies, only to collide with the nearest heavy structure and fall dead to the ground.

"Let's, go, let's go! Come on!" said Justin's mother. 

A few yards away and a few yards up, a woman at her desk was jolted awake when a barrage of birds collided with her windows, causing glass to shatter everywhere.

All around the birds were crashing into buildings, statues, cars, people, and glass. Rains of debris fell down upon those in the streets not already occupied with the swarms. 

Justin and his parents ran frantically through the streets, trying to avoid the din and the birds all at once. The panic and the crows were not helping their progress however.

Every few moments his father was able to catch a glimpse of the panic through their camera. Here were people running and screaming. Here were people clutching at their wounded faces. Mayhem, mass hysteria was everywhere. 

"Justin!" he tripped and fell in the street as the stampedes surged.

A cab driver careened through the street, shouting at the pedestrians in his way. 

"Watch it, you bloody idiots!" he yelled. His gaze turned to his right for only a moment, until a bird collided with his windshield, shattering it instantly. He steered left, than right, desperately trying not to hit anyone, until at last he found his cab dug into the back of another car.

"Hurry! Run!" Someone screamed. Justin's father dropped the camera and concerned himself with his family. It captured more images of the mayhem, but the possibility of them ever seeing the item again was slim. 

The driver of a double-decker bus was having his own problems. Swarms of birds crashed through the windows as passengers ran around screaming in fright. One maddened and crazed fowl landed in his lap and began to flap its wings violently. He had to protect his face, but that meant letting go of the wheel. Desperately he tried to keep control of the bus while swatting at the accursed creature. 

Justin and his family sought shelter from the streets. A man ran around whimpering and clutching his eye, others screamed in fright, many were running to seek what Justin's family desperately needed. A place to hide. They found shelter within a convenient store just in time to see a double-decker bus barrel up and over a car with a cab stuck in its rear bumper, then tip over with those passengers still alive screaming in horror and pain. 

Looking up, all within saw a swarm of birds heading straight for their windows. Justin coiled into the space between his mother and father, fearing for his life. Some hit, but others veered away in time. The glass shattered, but nothing else. In seconds the flocks dispersed and all that could be heard was wild twittering and alarms sounding from all areas of the streets. "Daddy!" a little girl screamed. Justin wept in his mother's arms. He didn't like birds so much anymore. 

__

University of Chicago

"The skies are empty over Nelson's Column now, but a few hours ago it was a different story." Josh, Acker, and Danni gathered near the television listening with frowns on their faces. "Eyewitnesses claim that the frenzied swarms of birds were not in fact attacking people deliberately..."

"And its not just this time." Acker came in, shaking his finger at the other two. "No, no, no, no, no, no."

"But seemed to be confused and flying blind." finished the reporter.

"The Fortean Times reported violent bird swarms..."

"Five people are confirmed dead, dozens injured..."

" ...twice last month in Australia and Japan."

"...in the panic that followed the bizarre and terrifying incident in London's historic Trafalgar Square."

"Weird." Josh stated, rubbing his hand through his sandy blonde hair and moving away."

"Mm-hmm." Acker agreed.

"Quite strange, also." said Danni, moving her head.

"Mm, strange indeed. Mm!" Acker laughed, mimicking her Indian accent.

Josh walked to his computer, scratching the back of his head. His eyes, brilliantly blue in the light and the spark in his head, turned around.

"How do birds navigate?"

"By sight?" Danni laughed.

"No, no, no. The long range stuff." Josh turned back to his computer.

"Magnetic fields. Little ions in their brains align with the magnetic field of the earth. Right?"

"Yeah, what she said." Acker smiled.

Something sparked in Josh's head. "Acker. Hit the 'Net. Do a search for oh uh, two years aught to do it. Any and all like "weird news", you know bizarre animal migrations, specifically birds. Whale and dolphin beachings. Unusual atmospheric phenomenon, unexplained airplane crashes, you know just use your imagination."

"That is a huge search!" Acker protested, looking up over some lab equipment. 

"You can use our T-1 line to look up Sailor Moon crap. You're up to this." Acker looked away, slightly embarrassed as Danni giggled. "Danni, Danni, get me the brightest kids from the Field Theory Class, and design a computer model of an electromagnetic field."

"What are we doing?" she asked.

"I need a 3-D computer model of the Earth to lay the field over."

"Whoa-ho-ho, the planet Earth?" Acker protested again.

"Yeah, the planet Earth. You know, the pretty blue one." He turned to Danni who was smiling at the comment. "Map out the anomalies that Acker finds and grunt out the equations. And uh..." he had been running around the lab for some time, grabbing random binders and books and dragging them along with them in his walk. "...grab those smelly kids from the Non-Linear Diff class, too."

Acker leaned over from his seat and gazed at the professor. "Listen, Josh, do we even have time for this?" 

Josh sat down, leaning his hands on his knees then rocking backward. There was an inextinguishable light in his eyes that told the others he was on to something. 

"Do this and I'll sign your doctorates blindfolded."

"Blindfolded?" Danni asked in disbelief.

"Blindfolded." Josh confirmed. "Do not pass Go. Go directly to PhD." Acker shook his head and went on with his work as Danni left. Josh returned to his computer and sighed. "Be wrong. Be wrong." he observed the maps and icons popping up. Hopefully this was all just an ecstatic theory of his. It couldn't be true.

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Author's Note: _Yeah I know, still no changes. Those will come around during chapter 11 or 12. I haven't decided if I'm going to keep Iverson or not. _


	3. Endeavor Landing

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Author's Note: _Yay! Reviews! Thanks everyone. So, keep Iverson and something interesting with Zimsky? I can probably do that. Just don't think you're saying goodbye to Serge. He was my favorite character. [hugs Serge] ^_^_

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Chapter Three

Endeavor Landing

Space, Endeavor-Houston

Thousands of miles above the Earth, the space shuttle Endeavor made her last arrangements before returning home. The crew was settled tightly in their seats, all save commander Iverson. Major Rebecca Childs set the gears and computers so that all was ready upon his entrance.

"Tim, I'm coming in a little hot. Give me some drag, will you?"

"Roger that." responded Tim. 

Iverson slid smoothly into his seat beside Childs and readied himself.

"We are in attitude and ready for an entry interface." Childs stated, her eyes surveying the control panel one last time.

"Nice work, Major." Stated Iverson, leaning in and making some adjustments. "I have the controls now for E.I."

"I could take us in." suggested Childs with a slight tone of hopefulness in her voice.

"You could," Iverson laughed, strapping his belts. "but you won't."

"I'm ready for this, Bob." she added.

"Oh, no you're not Beck." he smiled. "You're trained, and you're certified doesn't make you the commander. And the commander lands the bird. You got to be the youngest person ever in space. You should say, thank you, be happy. Now."

Beck smiled. Iverson was like a father to her, but his disallowance of her taking charge was always entertaining. At least she made it appear so. Iverson was sure it was also slightly frustrating for her, and he felt bad keeping her from what he knew she could do so well. Perhaps even better than himself. 

__

"Endeavor, Houston, at this time we show you go for reentry."

"Houston, Endeavor descending through 400,000 feet coming upon entry interface." Childs responded to Houston.

"Endeavor, this is Flight." called an aged woman through her receiver. "Weren't able to annoy the commander into letting you bring her in this time?"

__

"That's a negative, Stick." Childs smiled. "I'll have to be more annoying next time."

"Is that even possible?" 

Tim could be heard laughing in the back seat.

"Endeavor, we see you in good reentry config."

"Roger, Houston." came Childs.

Endeavor soared through the icy blackness of space. As she reentered the atmosphere the heat build up caused the apparition of flames around her tale. The crew prepared itself for landing.

"Advise." came Tim's voice over the intercom at Houston. 

"I'm seeing those plasma trails now." Iverson confirmed. 

"All right. Mark 24 1/2, so a minute to air."

"I don't believe in belts." Childs came in. "Just get me through the Earth's atmosphere in this spaceship." The signal died for a moment as they entered the atmosphere. All those at Houston waited patiently. 

"Com dropout." 

Endeavor entered the atmosphere. The plasma trails dispersed almost immediately and the ship angled itself for a landing. 

"Start the I Com."

"Let's wait till the..." Iverson's voice could be heard over the intercom once more.

"Com restored." 

But something was still wrong. Endeavor was off on her landing. The RE-ENTRY DEVIATION ALERT flashed red on the screen. SHUTTLE REENTRY OFF BY 129.0276 MILES. 

"Quiet!" Stickley demanded.

"We are out of position here." Iverson frowned as the image of Los Angeles came to view in his window. 

"Guidance shows us on energy and course." Tim argued.

"Well, I've made this approach two hundred and thirteen times in the simulator. We are not where we're supposed to be."

"Where the hell are we?" Childs asked.

"Endeavor, guidance is bad. You are now 1-2-niner miles off course."

"Roger Houston, we sort of noticed." Childs snapped. "Is that...?"

"Los Angeles. That is confirmed."

"We are 1-5 thousand feet. We got maybe two minutes of glide time left."

"Doesn't make sense." Tim stated, trying to do the math in the back seat. "The guidance, the beacons are all wrong?"

"We're heading straight for downtown."

"We're not going to crash into Los Angeles." Iverson stated firmly. 

"They're going to hit downtown L.A. at three hundred knots."

Endeavor worked her way into the atmosphere. Nose thrust full ahead, she was on a collision course.

"Bob, you know L.A.? Because I have an idea." Childs stated, working out coordinates on a map. 

"Houston, those buildings are getting mighty big. Can you clear a freeway?"

"Okay, thank you."

"Come on. Come on." 

Joel, on the phone, shook his head. Stickley turned her attention back to the shuttle.

"It's rush hour, Commander, and its bumper-to-bumper."

"Sir I have an alternate." Childs stated nervously. "If you turn to heading 1-7-5..."

"It's Houston's call. Houston?"

"Computers are still plotting." Stickley confirmed. 

"Come on."

Endeavor cleared over a baseball field in just a few seconds, stopping the game and everyone else in their tracks.

"Houston, we are running out of time here." Iverson hissed through gritting teeth. 

"Sir, I have an alternate!" Childs repeated.

"All right, Beck, what do you got?"

"Houston, I have coordinates for an alternate landing site. Can you confirm?"

"Endeavor, give them to me." Stickley demanded.

"I show possible touchdown...at 33.55 north, 188.10 west.:

"Bill?"

"It's theoretically possible." he stated, though he didn't have much confidence in the idea.

"Endeavor..."

"That is confirmed." Stickley came over the Com. "Turn right heading 1-7-5. Expect visual contact with Los Angeles river in five seconds."

Endeavor cleared over their makeshift runway within the estimated time. Bob's eyes winced together, blinked, then came apart at the image before him.

"No, that will not work Houston. We got bridges every few hundred yards. Our wingspan alone is going to fold us up."

"I figured the "L" over "D" max." Childs stated. "We _can_ make it if you bring us straight in."

"We're coming in high and hot." came Tim from behind.

Iverson was visibly shaking in his seat. Beck's eyes were wide with fear. This idea was a last resort and not a very good one at that. She only hoped that this got them through. 

"Two ninety feet, three twenty. Two seventy, three-o-five."

"Arm the gear." commanded Iverson.

"You're armed." came Tim.

"Gear down. Now."

"Gear in transition." The gear went up. Bob set himself for the roughest landing of his life. "Two forty feet. Two ninety."

"Hang on. This isn't going to be subtle." Iverson warned.

"Two ten feet. Two sixty five."

Iverson brought the tale down and the nose up. They were heading straight into the first bridge. 

A police officer on the bridge tried desperately to get those still on the bridge off and away. 

"Get out of the way! Move!" 

Somehow it just missed them. The nose shifted position and went up and over as the tail just grazed them. The shuttle then came to a hard landing in the water beneath them, careening faster and faster, it seemed, toward destruction.

"Derotate." yelled Beck.

"Inward." replied Iverson.

The nose came down just in time for them to clear the second bridge.

"Two thirty...two ten."

"Speed brakes."

Beck set them. "One hundred percent."

"Oh, we're way too fast."

"Deploy the chute." Tim recommended.

"No. We'd snag the bridge. We'll tear the tail off." They came upon another bridge. "Banking right!"

"Commander that next bridge!" Beck yelled. She looked outside her window to see as the wings ripped off, tearing and snapping against the concrete barriers on either side of them. "Watch it! We're way to high for that one! Suck up the gear."

"Not yet." Iverson protested. "We lose all steering."

"We hit, its over." she argued.

They kept sliding on and on. Just a few hundred yards away was a crew working on the next bridge. There was no way. Simply no way.

"Gear up now!" Iverson yelled. Beck pressed the buttons to initiate the gear retraction. 

The gears went up and just as Iverson said, all steering was lost. They were now a hockey puck in a narrow skating rink, heading on a crash course for destruction, and the construction zone was the net. 

"Lock your harnesses." Came Iverson. "This is out of my hands."

They slid forward, under another bridge. Their tail and wingtips shattered. With their balance and aerodynamics now off, the ship careened in three hundred sixty degree turns. All inside braced themselves for certain death. 

The workers on the bridge saw the image unfolding a few yards ahead and scattered. Tools, planks, anything being carried was dropped instantly. 

"Let's get out of here!"

"Run! Let's get out of here!" Was shouted. One young man with heavy headphones on, however, heard nothing. He continued drilling and welding, oblivious to the dangers careening toward him at miles per minute, until a shadow passed over his line of vision. He turned, completely stunned, to see a space shuttle sitting right in front of him.

Sirens could be heard from behind. It was over.

**Author's Note: **_Wow. This one was hell to write. Hope you all like it. Still, nothing changing till chapter 11. Just to let you know. ^_^_


	4. Government Secrets

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Author's Note: _[takes AgentSands;CIAsFinest and hugs her] You like Serge too? He was my favorite character!! YAY for Serge! [hugs Serge]_

Serge: Get away from me you nut!

Aw c'mon! Can't I get a hug!

Serge: No! Get away from me! Josh! Get this crazy girl away from me!

Josh: What's the problem here?

No problem!

Serge: She won't leave me alone!

Josh: Okay let's go!

NO! WAIT! STOP! DO NOT TOUCH ME I DECIDE YOUR FATE IN THIS STORY!!! [As they drag her off the ship] NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

~Um okay, on with the chapter. 

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Chapter Four

Government Secrets

Outside the National Science Museum

Josh had been waiting outside the museum for the past half hour. It was cold as hell and he wasn't too happy with his timing. The demonstration meeting had been over an hour ago. What was keeping them? He turned, ready to leave when suddenly a great din of voices could be heard, one was unmistakably arrogant.

"Dr. Zimsky!?"

"Will you make sure my assistant has your number, darling?" Zimsky was singing something of a lovely young blonde woman's, and his eyes gazed fondly into hers.

"Sure." she answered in a flutter.

"Dr. Zimsky!"

"Hello."

Josh ran up on the other side of the large crowd, hoping to catch the man's attention.

"I'll call security." his assistant offered.

"No, its all right. It's all right." he waved his hand, signing a few more books here and there. "Hello."

"Thank you, sir."

"Dr. Zimsky." Josh asked, feeling nervous but too cold to think much on it. 

"Yes, what's your name?" Zimsky placed his cigarette in his mouth and brought out a pen. 

"Uh, Josh Keyes."

"Josh."

"No, sir, I don't need you to sign it. I need you to read that."

Zimsky looked up at Josh with a slight shock and impression in his eyes. That this young man would have the nerve to ask such a job of him, not knowing or seemingly caring who he was, and with more important business deals then this half pints theories.

"I'm sorry," he laughed, taking the cigarette from his mouth. "I don't have time. I'm late for the White House."

"Sir, please." Josh was desperate. "I need you to confirm my results, sir."

"Young man, do you have any idea who I am?"

This conversation lasted till the end of the staircase in front of the museum. Zimsky was preparing to get into his car. Josh didn't have much time left to convince this man otherwise.

"Yes, I do sir. Please read this."

Zimsky stopped, consider this man. His face was sincere and worried. He wasn't unintelligent, Zimsky could tell that in a heartbeat. But his inconsiderate nature was slightly annoying.

"What's it about?" he spat, sticking his cigarette back into his mouth.

"It's the end of the world."

__

Zimsky's Loft

Papers, graphs and charts were scattered everywhere. Stereographs, thermographs, seismographs and other charts. Zimsky shifted through them all, again and again. Disbelieving. All he could do was shake his head as his eyes poured over the information.

Their eyes met after a few moments, and a smile broke over Zimsky's face.

"No I...this is impossible. I'm sorry. I-I-I can't have missed this. You-you have to be wrong. I mean, look, I'm sure with careful comparison to my own work, we'll find that you're mistaken. No offense but..."

Josh had heard enough already. He grabbed his coat.

"Well, I mean, we'll know soon enough." Zimsky looked up. "The bigger effects will start up any day now." He left, leaving Zimsky to his thoughts.

Immediately he rushed to a side room and opened a file. He then returned to his room. This wasn't going to be easy.

__

D.C. The Pentagon

Major Rebecca Childs stood stiff and weary near the entrance to the review room. Her eyes peered expectantly down the hall. Waiting. She bobbed up and down on her heels, twisted her hat, and bit her bottom lip. She may have torn her hair from her head had she not needed to worry about making a good impression. Finally her eyes caught sight of the man she was looking for.

"Rebecca?" It was Purcell. He shook her hand, slightly amazed to be seeing her.

"Only you and Dad ever call me that." she smiled.

"Well, Beck." he corrected. "So, what brings you to sunny D.C.?"

"The Board of Review is next week." she responded nervously, following him down the corridor. "Just trying to get a sense of the mood upstairs." They traveled down the stairs. Her eyes bounced around nervously as the creases in Purcell's face tightened. "How bad is it?"

"Your crew crashed the space shuttle." Purcell answered coldly. He turned to face her firmly. "Now, how good do you think it could be?"

"Sir, this is my life." she said in a panic, following him further down the stairs. 

"Well..." 

"I was studying for the academy when I was thirteen. This still is and has always been my life."

"It's over." he said firmly, turning to her frowning. She moved to protest, but Purcell didn't give her a chance. "It's over, Rebecca. I'm sorry."

"It's right down here." someone yelled from the other side of the corridor.

"Really?"

"It's like the fourth of July!" a woman laughed.

"What the hell's the hurry here?" Purcell asked. Everyone was heading outside. Suddenly Purcell's phone rang. "Rebecca, would you excuse me, please?" she tried to protest one last time. "Excuse me." he walked off, leaving her with a sad smile on her face. "Purcell."

__

Zimsky's Loft

"Thomas, um, look...." said Zimsky, rotating his chair to look over a few more of Keyes' charts. "it seems that destiny may have caught up with us."

__

D.C. The Pentagon

Rebecca left the office and walked casually outside. She wasn't too happy with herself, or Purcell, or anyone at the moment, but the events around her soon made her forget. Everyone had stopped what they were doing and were now observing the sky. 

Looking up herself, Rebecca saw a sight she never believed would be seen over D.C. Northern lights danced beautifully above their heads. But why? 

How? 

__

A Bar in D.C.

"Did Zimsky really try to give you his autograph?" Serge asked in amusement. Josh downed another drink and nodded, both laughing at the concept. Serge could hardly suppress his laughter. "Ah, Monsieur Zimsky. Conrad Zimsky! Herr Zimsky! Superstar!" He started laughing harder now, and Josh with him. They were both stone drunk.

Suddenly the laughter died. Josh's frown increased tenfold, and Serge could only eye him with concern. Swallowing once, the young man looked up at his old friend and sighed.

"I think I skipped drunk.' he paused. 'Went straight to hang over."

Serge rested his forehead in the palm of his hand. Then with a sigh he combed his fingers through his hair, blinked, and looked at Josh. 

"Weren't you the one?" was sung through the radio nearby, but neither of the men were listening.

"I spoke with the kids." he stated. Josh looked up. "They don't sleep at night. They look at the sky at night and..." he laughed. "and they think its pretty. Is there any chance you're wrong?"

Josh shook his head. "No. The sky, man." Serge nodded, understanding as Josh pointed up at the eventless roof. "The sky--I mean, that's just the beginning. That's high altitude static discharge."

"I know." Serge whispered, nodding his head. His eyes were now reddening as they swelled with his lack of sleep and over consumption of alcohol. 

"Dr. Keyes..." came a very stern voice from over their heads. Serge looked up with disgust to see the FBI agents looming over Josh's head. Josh, too lazy to turn his head, bent backward over his chair to get the interesting image of two upside down agents staring idly at him. "...your presence is required at the Pentagon." 

"Ah...it's my best buddies!" Josh laughed. "Hey!" he straightened back into his seat as Serge tried not to laugh at the mockery he was making of these two highly dangerous men. "Why don't you join us for a drink?"

"We would be grateful if you could join us, for a ride sir."

Serge's eyes jumped from the agents to Josh with humor.

"And if I were to say no? Just asking." Both the men shook their heads.

"Yeah." Serge backed him up.

"Well we have no sense of humor." The agent notified them.

"That's true."

Serge started laughing again. Then, after regaining himself, looked up at the agents and sighed. "Oh..."

"And we're armed." the agent added.

Josh frowned as Serge shifted uncomfortably in his seat. His eyes shot a warning glance at Josh and he nodded for him to go. 

"I'll take care of the drinks." he stated.

Josh nodded and headed out, nervous as hell. Serge watched them go, hating the government more and more as they left.

__

The Pentagon

A guard opened the door to the meeting room. "Thank you." Josh whispered, nervous enough. He was beginning to wish they'd dragged Serge with too, but that was no longer possible. He came to see Purcell sitting in the center of a vast group of military men and scientists . Zimsky was also present.

"Dr. Keyes, welcome." Purcell greeted.

"Thank you." Josh responded meekly.

"Dr. Zimsky informs us that you made a useful contribution to his investigations, so he wanted you to assist him in the briefing."

"That's very generous of you, Dr. Zimsky." Josh bowed his head in mock respect. No one caught on. He didn't care.

"Science is a selfless business dear boy." Zimsky responded. "Now why don't you begin and I'll fill in all the difficult bits."

Josh cleared his throat. His hands seemed tied behind him. A million classes he'd taught and for some reason this was mind freezing.

"All right, I'll put this as simply as I can." he paused, then sighed and finished. "Everybody on Earth is dead in a year." This immediately started some nervous talk in the room. "And let me explain why. Wrapped around the Earth is an invisible field of energy." his hands finally came untied from behind and Josh immediately brought them forward. "It's made up of electricity and magnetism...so it's called -creatively enough- the electromagnetic field. It's where we get our magnetic North Pole and South Pole, and it protects us from cosmic radiation. So this EM field is our friend." 

"But now?" Purcell asked.

"But now, that field is falling apart." came Zimsky. 

"Why?" asked another officer in the crowd.

"Why?" Josh repeated. Sighing, he looked around and found a table laden with food. "This here." He grabbed a peach and started to cut it in half. "Does somebody have a can of air freshener?" Some looked at him curiously as Purcell commanded that such an item be brought. "Quick and dirty." He stated. He then presented to them, while wiping his other hand on his pants, the half of the peach cut vertically down the center. "The think skin, that's the Earth's crust. "That's what we live on. It's thirty miles thick. The meat here, call it the mantle. And forgetting all the-the funky transitions, it's two thousand miles thick. The core, the peach pit in the center...that's a tricky one. There's two parts. The inner core, and the outer core. Are you following me?" All nodded. All who had never had this lesson in Basic Earth Science 101. "The inner core is, uh...well, its a big, solid chunk of iron, we think. That's surrounded by the outer core, and that is liquid."

"Yes but," Zimsky interjected. "most importantly, this liquid is constantly spinning in one direction. So a trillion trillion tons of hot metal spinning at a thousand miles an hour, so..." he motioned for Josh to keep going.

"Right, so Physics 101-hot metal moving makes an electromagnetic field. This spinning liquid inner core is the engine that drives the EM field. And that's where we have our problem." 

"This engine has stalled." Zimsky came again. Purcell's gaze switched from Josh to Zimsky in a heartbeat. "The core of the Earth has stopped spinning."

"How could this have happened?" Purcell asked. 

Zimsky looked to Purcell with a slightly knowing expression. Josh took note of this, but said nothing, and kept his eyes on Purcell.

"We don't know." he answered.

"What's the timeline here?" Purcell asked.

Josh sighed, shrugging his shoulders. "As the EM field becomes more and more unstable, we'll start seeing isolated incidents. One plane will fall from the sky, and then two, and then...in a few months, anything-everything electronic will be fried."

"Static discharges in the atmosphere will create 'Super-storms' with hundreds of lightening strikes per square mile." Zimsky added.

"After that," Josh took up the ball again, "it gets bad." The people in the room unfamiliar with the effects of electromagnetism exchanged glances. 

"The Earth's EM field shields us from the solar winds, which are a lethal blend of radioactive particles and microwaves. When that shield collapses, microwave radiation will literally cook our planet."

"Dr. Zimsky." Josh addressed. The man left his seat and, brandishing a lighter, stood beside Josh with the air freshener can and another peach, whole, on a barbeque fork. "This is the sun." Josh announced, shaking the can. "This is the earth..." he waved the peach around. "without the EM field." He turned to Zimsky. "Would you?"

"Mm-hmm." The lighter flicked on. Josh let lose the air freshener, and everyone watched uncomfortable as the peach was roasted by the flames. When it was finished, the peach still burned. Zimsky eyed this image and the men in the room in turn. "Three months gentleman, and we're back in the Stone Age. A full year, the field collapses, and that."

Silence. Josh walked over to a picture of water. "May I?" he dropped the burned peach inside and walked away. "Feel free to throw up. I know I did." 

"So," Purcell came in. "How do we fix it?"

"We can't."

"Not in my vocabulary." the general argued.

"Then you might want to get one of those word-a-day calendars, General, because it's impossible." Purcell looked as though he had never been so insulted in his life. Josh couldn't care less. "The core is the size of Mars. You're talking about jumpstarting a planet. This is a super heated hyper-fluid of molten iron and nickel at nine thousand degrees Fahrenheit, two thousand miles down, a thousand miles thick. And the deepest we've ever been is...seven miles." he stated. "With a two inch drill bit." 

"If we can go into space, we can certainly-"

"Space is easy!" Josh argued. "It's empty." Zimsky smiled. "We're talking about millions of pounds of pressure per square inch. Even if we somehow came up with a brilliant plan to fix the core, we just can't get there!"

"Yes, but..." everyone turned to look at Zimsky. "...what if we could?"

****

Author's Note: _Well that was hell to write. I added a bit more between Serge and Josh at the end of the bar scene. Hope you liked that. ^_^_


	5. Unobtainium

****

Author's Note: _Okay Agent Sands. You can have Josh, as long as I get Serge. ~_^ Not a bad decision if I may congratulate you, but I could never part with my favorite Frenchman. [Hugs Serge very tight]_

Serge: What did I tell you already? Don't make me go get Joshua!

Eep. Please, don't send me from your presence.

Serge: What the hell, you're acting like I'm God.

[Hugs Serge]

Serge: JOSHUA!!

[Weeps as she is once again dragged away from Serge]

~God, I'm like a fan-girl. Terrible. Well I can't help it. I'm a big fan of Tckeky Karyo. [hugs Tcheky] 

Tcheky: We are not starting this again.

^_^

****

~

Chapter Five

Unobtainium

~

Salt Flats, Utah

Purcell, Josh, Serge, and Zimsky were overlooking a vast desert. Mountains, shrubbery, sand dunes, all of it was bypassed in just a few moments until they came to a clear spacing in what seemed to be the dead center of the dessert. A shanty town, practically, lie beneath their feet. Josh frowned in disappointment. So this was where there famed ship builder lived? Didn't seem too promising.

"Probably had to disassemble the town just to build the damn thing." Serge whispered in his hear. Or what could have passed as a whisper over the roar of the chopper's propeller. When they landed, Purcell, Zimsky, Josh, and Serge left the security of the chopper to come upon the largest of all the makeshift metal buildings. An elderly black man walked firmly out to greet them, but his expression soured upon seeing Zimsky's face. 

"Hello, Braz." Zimsky greeted cheerfully while lighting a cigarette. The man shook his head, laughing to cover up some mysterious disappointment.

"Why the hell aren't you dead yet?" he asked. Purcell frowned at the greeting. Zimsky merely cocked his head. Braz shrugged his shoulders and started to walk away. "Okay, this way."

Josh looked questioningly at Zimsky.

"Well," he stated, removing his cigarette. "...that went better than I expected." Josh nodded.

"Doctor Brazzleton, I see you know Doctor Zimsky." Purcell stated as they walked along toward the hanger. 

"Yeah." Braz stated sharply. "Twenty years ago he stole my research. After that we-we kind of lost touch." he laughed bitterly.

"Research that was equally mine." Zimsky argued.

"That's funny, I don't remember a check from any of the patents."

"All right, Braz. Twenty years in the desert makes you a prophet _and _a martyr." Zimsky took a drag from his cigarette. "Look, we're here about your legendary ship."

~

"Okay," Braz started to explain as he uncovered what appeared to be a high powered Gatling gun. "...I'm combining high frequency pulse lasers with resonance tube ultrasonics. Um, if you've ever seen ultrasonic waves break up a kidney stone on the Discovery Channel, it's the same deal here." Braz stepped behind an alter like operating unit and looked to the four observers a few yards away. "You can...put your helmets on now." Braz warned. Everyone did so immediately. "Firing." 

The ultrasonic tubes on the sides started to rotate, gaining speed to the point where Josh's eyes, now shielded by the goggles, could no longer follow the movement. A neon green light began to illuminate the "back burners" of the gun. Soon a high pierced humming resonated through their ears, and a great beam of light tore through the air before them and into the rock structure to their left. Purcell, Zimsky, and Serge held desperately to their goggles and helmets. They were all immediately knocked backward. After that, Josh remembered nothing but Braz's shouts and hoots of joy and laughter. Dust filled the air around them. "Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo!" Braz did a small dance, then rushed to turn off the lasers as he noticed his audience was now sprawled out on the ground. 

"Yeah. Oh." Braz stated. 

Josh struggled to get to his feet. Purcell was kneeling beside him, gazing in the direction of the beam's fire with awe. Josh could barely make anything out. Zimsky and Serge were still on their bums. 

As one they eventually made their way over to the seventy foot hole that reached all the way through the rock to the other side. 

"Okay. I'm officially impressed." Josh whispered as Serge spat out an unnatural amount of dust and saliva. They turned to Braz.

"So, all right." Zimsky stated. "So you've made some progress with the engine, we'll grant you. Have you begun to think about a shell?"

Serge put his sun glasses back on as Josh stared questioningly at the "engine". 

~

"Okay this, is Alex." said Braz, introducing them to a small white lab mouse. "Good. Alex, good." the mouse was placed in an odd black box with some rough covering. Josh laughed as Zimsky merely eyed the procedure with critical skepticism. "Okay, here we have a concrete block, and in back of that we have a two-inch steel plate." Everyone nodded. 

All moved to put their safety goggles on. 

"Okay. We're ready." Zimsky stated.

"And we are...firing."

Braz started up a similar looking "engine". A beam of light shot into the block but didn't touch it. The cement block dissolved as well as the two inch steel plate, instantly, along with whatever metal the hanger was made out of. A board fell covering past attempts with the weapon. 

When all was finished, Braz moved forward and pulled Alex forth from the black box, alive and completely untouched. 

"Voila!"

Josh ripped his protective eyewear from his head, his face contorted into complete surprise and wonder.

"That's...."

"That's impossible!" Serge complete the statement.

~

"I combined the crystals in a tungsten-titanium matrix at super cool temperatures, and that's what did the trick." Braz stated breathily, showing to them what looked like a scientist might hang on his rear view mirror in his Ferrari to substitute for the traditional fuzzy dice.

Purcell shook his head. "The applications for this are just..." he couldn't finish.

Serge picked up the black box and inspected it. "What do you call this material?"

"Well its real name has thirty seven syllables. I call it unobtainium."

"Unobtainium?" Josh laughed. 

"Mm-hmm."

~

"The unobtainium will take the heat and the pressure and transform it to energy, which in turn, reinforces the shell of the ship, you see." Braz went around adjusting large construction projects. This part of the hanger was obscenely darker than the others. "So the hotter and the deeper she gets, the strong she gets, theoretically." he pulled a canvas down which in turn sent a large bird flying to the ground.

"Theoretically?" Zimsky came in.

"Theoretically, yes. This...is Johnson don't mind him." Braz stated, pointing to the obviously perturbed bird. The canvas that Braz had been pulling down revealed the designs of a cage like work area. He stood in the center of it, explaining excitedly what it was they were seeing. "This is the prototype for the cockpit here."

"Excuse me, Doctor Brazzleton," Serge stepped forward. "...when do you think this ship will be operational?"

Braz started to move his hands around, mentally doing the math and statistics. 

"When I get my fabrication methods perfected....twelve...ten years, ten years."

"What would it take to get it done in three months?" Purcell asked. 

Braz started to laugh in embarrassment. "Fifteen billion dollars. I..."

Purcell cocked his head. "Will you take a check?"

Braz stared at the General in questioning amazement. Josh leaned over.

"Why don't you use a credit card? You get miles."

For the first time, Purcell actually laughed at something the young scientist said.

"Mm." he nodded.


	6. Help From the Rat

****

Author's Note: _I'm sorry Firestone, I never addressed you before. Thank you for reviewing. I appreciate it._

Oh, Agent Sands, I probably won't get rid of Beck. She's Josh's love interest and, even though she was annoying, I think she had some importance to the story. Sorry to disappoint you, but at least we get to keep everyone else, right? ^_^

****

~

Chapter Six

Help from the Rat

~

Apartment. Undefined Location.

There was a harsh knocking on the entry door. Finch peered suspiciously through his peephole. There was a small grouping of FBI agents, heavily armed, waiting for him.

"Shit!"

"Mr. Finch, this is the FBI. We have a warrant."

Finch abandoned the door and immediately started to get rid of all and any evidence. This wasn't a drug bust. This was a computer conviction. 

"Purge. Purge. Purge." he deleted every file on every computer.

Disks were tossed into the toaster, CDs tossed into the microwave, more disks thrown into the sink, anything and everything he could do. He took magnets and scanned his modems and hard drives with them frantically. 

"FBI! Freeze!" 

Finch turned, smiling as innocently as possible.

"Okay. I know these look like computers. Totally not!"

~

__

Another Undefined Location. Assumedly Washington D.C.

"Theodore Donald Finch." Purcell read dryly. "Carnegie-Mellon University. M.I.T. Worked and the Sun, Lucent, Rand Corp."

"My handle's 'Rat'. Call me 'Rat.'" he corrected.

"Sixty three computer fraud indictments."

"Sixty four." Finch corrected.

"Two convictions. This is strike three, Mr. Finch."

Finch frowned shrewdly. "Wait a second. You guys aren't here to whack me, are you? Cause I was really, really hoping to have sex before that happened."

"Yeah." Purcell stated apathetically. "I've been told by the FBI - who's database you crippled last year - that you are the best in the business. So you're about to be given a choice."

"What if I say no?" Finch challenged.

Zimsky stepped in, incredibly bored and disgusted with this sad display of human life. "Excuse me but, is this really the best we could do? I mean..."

"How many languages do you speak?" Finch asked in a defying way.

"Five, actually." Zimsky replied somewhat arrogantly, then proceeded to take a long drag from his cigarette.

"Well I speak one. One, zero, one, zero, zero. With that, I could steal your money, your secrets, your sexual fantasies, your whole life, any country, any place, any time I want." he raised his eyebrows. "We multitask like you breathe. I couldn't think as slow as you if I tried."

Purcell looked to Zimsky, interested in his reaction. The man was fuming. 

"Do you have any idea-?"

"Okay, hey! Hey!" Josh came in, trying to prevent an unnecessary argument. He knew how to deal with kids like this. He didn't learn nothing from being a college professor. 

Resting his chin on his knuckles, he circled the chair. "Let's just, lets give the kid a break." He turned as Finch pulled something out of his pocket. Josh sighed as others ran to retrieve it, or get Finch. One or the other. "Okay, its a phone. Just a phone!" he assured them. He kneeled down next to the seat as Finch pulled out a piece of gum and a comb. "Rat, we got a big problem. A lot of people are going to die. We need your help."

"What kind of help?"

"Information control." Purcell responded. Zimsky was rolling his eyes as Serge conceived this situation with interest. 

"We need you to control the flow of information on the Internet."

"You're dreaming." Rat stated matter-of-factly. "Nobody controls the 'Net."

"Could you...with unlimited resources?"

Rat looked up at him after making strange sounds with his new little toy. 

"You want me to hack the planet?" Rat asked in amazement. Josh cocked his head. Rat laughed as he dialed a number on Josh's phone. "He wants me to hack the planet." The number dialed. Everyone heard it. He blew his notes into the receiver, a few more dial tones, and then he tossed the phone back to Josh. "You've got free long distance on that phone...forever." Finch turned to face Purcell and the others. "Okay...if I decide to do this, I'm going to need an unlimited supply of Xena tapes, and Hot Pockets."

"Hot Pockets?" Purcell repeated.

"They help me concentrate."

Josh laughed. "Sounds fair."

****

Author's Note: _Damn, this line by line pausing scene by scene crap is getting annoying. That and my parents think I'm insane. This better not screw up my DVD. _

Sorry, I'm complaining. Still...only 5 more chapters till everything heads to my hands. ^_^ I already have some stuff written out. Hope you guys will like it. 


	7. The Crew

**__**

~

Chapter Seven

The Crew

~

The Pentagon

Major Rebecca Childs sat expectantly in an impeccable room just outside the courtroom. Her nerves were tensed to the point that she had actually resorted to chewing gum for the past fifteen minutes she'd been sitting there. Her knees jumped up and down as her feet bobbed nervously. Her stomach was in knots and her mind was going on and on constantly, telling her over and over that it was all over. Iverson paced a few yards in front of her, equally nervous. Finally, the door opened.

"Major Childs, they're ready for you." 

Rebecca turned to spit out her gum. When she realized there was no garbage can, she swallowed it stiffly, then stood to enter the room.

~

She stood before a long line of high ranking officers. Her hands seemed tied behind her back, but she stood strongly before them. An un-breaking stone structure in a torrential wind. 

"Major Childs, a clarification: you and you alone were responsible for proposing the descent vectors for the shuttle, correct?"

"Yes, General." She nodded her head stiffly. Iverson shook his head in disappointment behind her and spoke quietly with Talma Stickley at his side.

"We have determined that the class "A" landing mishap experienced by the Shuttle Endeavor was caused by biased navigational data from the ground due to a brief geomagnetic disturbance." It was at this point that Purcell entered the courtroom. "Major Childs, the resourcefulness you showed in determining the descent vectors prove that you have exceptional navigation skills. You've brought much credit upon yourself, the space program, and the United States Air Force. Congratulations, Major." Beck could not hold back a smile. "You are reassigned with Commander Iverson and Flight Director Stickley to a new mission effective immediately. Transportation is waiting outside. Good luck and Godspeed, Major." He saluted her.

__

Operations Base. Undesignated Location.

"Are you sure you want to wear this tie?" Serge asked a nerve wrecked Josh Keyes. 

"Why?" Josh stated breathily.

"I don't know. I mean you look so nervous about it. You look so..." he sighed sadly. Purcell stepped toward them, frowning bitterly. His eyes fell nervously, only momentarily, to Josh's tie.

"So, how are you holding up?" he asked.

"Oh, hi." Josh said breathily. "I'm good, I'm good." he fiddled with the tie a little longer. "I'm about to tell a couple hundred people the world is going to end." he added sarcastically.

"Well..." Serge started to say.

"I've had better days." Josh admitted.

"You look good." Purcell commented, tugging a bit at his own tie then walking away.

"Well, no, you don't look good." Serge commented immediately. His eyes were full of an uncharacteristic concern for Josh. He'd never seen the kid so nervous in all his life. He felt immensely sorry for him. Wishing he could take Josh's place, though knowing that wasn't possible. Serge was happy he could at least stand beside him for this.

"Why did he touch his tie like that?" Josh asked in a growing paranoia. He started to redo his tie immediately. 

"You look like you're about to throw up. Do you want me to help with that?"

Zimsky was on the other side of the room, going over some papers when he saw Purcell on the other side of the room.

"Thomas, let me speak with you for a moment." He ran to catch up with the fast walking General. "Listen, wouldn't you rather I did this? I mean, given my reputation, I think that..."

"No. No." Purcell protested immediately. "Keyes is the lead here, Zimsky."

"Yes. Thomas, this is the most important scientific operation in history. And given my status, I feel it's my job to present-"

"Project Destiny was your job, Zimsky. And you went way beyond authorized limits. And let me tell...And let me tell you," he pointed a threatening finger. "I still, I want to know if Destiny caused this problem."

Zimsky was fuming at the insult of his own work being thrown so strongly at him.

"It's highly unlikely, but it may be the solution." he shot back bitterly. "Now I have not finished checking-"

"Excuse me." Purcell stated. He walked away leaving Zimsky more angry then when they had started the conversation. 

Purcell made his way toward a small group of Air Force officers where Rebecca deviated from the group to shake his hand.

"Rebecca...I'm so glad I was wrong."

~

"Right over left." Braz told Josh casually. The elderly man wasn't even dressed formally for this meeting. Josh wished he had his air of uncaring, perhaps then he wouldn't be so obsessed over this damned tie! "No, the other left, the other left."

"Gentleman." Purcell addressed them.

"And then you..." Braz continued without noticing immediately. His gaze turned in time away from helping Josh who was still having an immense problem.

"Gentleman." They parted to allow room for the newcomers. "Commander Iverson, Major Childs, this is your crew: Doctor Brazzleton knows the ship;"

"Hello." Braz greeted each of them in turn.

"Doctor. Zimsky knows the planet;"

"Doctor." Iverson greeted formally.

"Doctor Leveque knows the weapon's system." Iverson bowed to greet Serge, but he turned away.

"Excuse me, ladies first." he smiled and shook hands with Rebecca. "Hi." 

"And Doctor Keyes." Josh was still messing with his tie. Purcell cleared his throat to get the man's attention. "Doctor Keyes built the navigation system, so..."

Rebecca leaned in and shook his hand, smiling pleasantly. "Hi. Rebecca Childs." he nodded his head, trying to look pleased to meet them. He did the same to the Commander. "Bob Iverson."

"These are your fellow....fellow...what?" Purcell asked lightly. 

"Terranauts?" 

"Hello." came Stickley's voice from behind them all. "All this brain power over here is beginning to smell like burning batteries. Y'all better come and join in."

"Yeah." Josh turned and started rearranging the tie all over again. 

Iverson cleared his throat. 

"It's the simplest things that are always the hardest, huh?" he laughed.

"Yeah. It's official." Josh laughed, walking backwards with him. "I'm the least qualified person on this base."

"Doctor Keyes I'm sure the people in charge have every confidence in you." Iverson encouraged.

"Well, the problem is that I'm in charge." Iverson's smile faded. "Yeah. I know." he laughed.

The Commander started to walk away then to take his seat. Rebecca approached him a few moments later.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"Yes, please." Immediately Rebecca started to work on his tie for him. Josh looked up, slightly embarrassed. "You're an astronaut, and you can tie a Windsor?" 

"Mm-hmm." she nodded as she tied.

"Is there anything you can't do?" 

She smiled. "Not that I'm aware of."

Josh laughed nervously. "I find that incredibly intimidating."

"Yep. Most people do. Here." she smiled, adjusting his collar.

"Thanks." he breathed with a great smile of relief. Rebecca grinned. He had a lovely smile, whenever he was smiling, that was.

"You're welcome." she laughed.

They moved over toward the table where all the others sat waiting. Purcell, seeing Rebecca and Josh both ready, began to speak.

"Let me introduce our project leader, Doctor Joshua Keyes."

"Thank you. Thank you." Josh breathed as he sat. The audience applauded along with Serge, Iverson, and Rebecca. Josh, looking more nervous now than he did ten minutes ago, tried to loosen up the atmosphere. "Good evening. Good evening." had he looked to his left he might have seen Serge smiling proudly, but he never did. "Wow. This looks like a meeting for Nobel Prize Winners Anonymous." Serge and a few others laughed. Josh, sensing the renewed tension, began immediately. "I know you're all the finest in your fields and I've come a long way to be here. So I'll outline our program over the next three months..."

****

Author's Note: _Yeah I know I'm sorry. But the scene ends there. I may have something happen to Beck, Agent Sands, but I don't think I'll kill her. Sorry. _

This was much easier to write. I think I'm getting used to this...what should I call it, "Scripting"? 

^_^ ~Adieu for now!


	8. Preparing for the Mission

**__**

~

Chapter Eight

Preparing for the Mission

~

"Dr. Brazzelton will supervise the building of a ship which is capable of reaching the center of our planet. Once there, it will deliver an explosive charge large enough to restart its core. Dr. Zimky will calculate the scale of the explosion needed. 

~

"This is a program I designed to simulate the effect of nuclear detonations on the core. If my calculations are correct, a tiny nudge in any direction will force the core back into it's normal flow."

"What's a 'tiny nudge' in planetary terms?" Josh asked, taking a seat beside Beck.

"Well, a thousand megaton give or take." Came Serge, waving his hand about. 

"Tops," Zimsky. "Because any more than that would create a core instability."

"We made a few monster warheads in the two hundred megaton range." Serge took the ball back up again. He turned to his computer as the simulator did its work. "Braz, do you think the ship could handle five of these babies?"

"Yeah," Braz nodded his head confidently . "I can enlarge the ejection pod..."

"Forgive me," Iverson put a hand out, stepping into the conversation. "but, you know, I know I'm not the expert here, but what if the core is thicker or thinner? I mean, what if its not what you think it is? Isn't that going to affect the way the explosions are...?"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes." Zimsky stated in mock concern. "And what if the core is made of cheese?" He laughed. "This is all best guess, Commander. That's all science is, is best guess."

Iverson nodded his head thoughtfully. "So my best guess is you don't know."

~

"With luck, irony will break for the good guys for once, and the worlds biggest weapons of mass destruction will help save the world. The ship will be powered by a small experimental nuclear reactor. It will be divided into six compartments like cars on a train: the locomotive unit, navigation compartment, living quarters, engineering, bomb compartment, and finally the weapons control module."

~

"Up to a forty five degree angle, every compartment will be held level by these gyro control gimbals." Braz stated, pointing out the features on a computer simulated future Virgil. But if we do breach a section, bulkhead doors engage automatically, seal off the section in red, and eject."

"Is ejection really the best option?" Serge asked nervously. He didn't like the idea.

"Only option." Braz stated, unbothered. "Each damaged compartment degrades the entire hull."

~

"The objective is simple. The obstacles are gigantic. We're going to need all the help in the world, but if we are to avoid panic and chaos, the world at large can never know what's happening here. Which is where our friend Mr. Rat comes in."

~

"It's called virus-bot," Rat stated as the computer went through its exercises. Josh watched in utter fascination. "It's a computer virus that will seek out files anywhere on the Web that contain keywords that we designate, and wipes them out." Josh's eyebrows raised as his head nodded in understanding. "This is my Kung-Fu, and it is strong."

~

"Meanwhile, there are a million puzzles ahead of us, and we have three months to solve them. We have a committed and ingenious team. We have every resource available to us, and we have the best of the world's scientific and technical talents on our side. With your help we can, we must...succeed. 

~

This was it. The crew was belted and buckled into their appropriate seats. This was merely a test compared to what they would be facing in the weeks to come, but so far, it wasn't going well. Iverson, Braz, and Zimsky were shouting back and forth as Serge and Beck called out random necessary information. Josh sat rigid in his seat, not enjoying a moment of the ride.

"Feedback in the resonance tube." came Zimsky.

"Talk to me, gentleman." Iverson commanded.

"We are losing structural integrity." warned Serge.

"No, its not feedback." Braz corrected Zimsky. It's an impeller malfunction, I believe."

"No, its not, no. If it were an impeller malfunction-"

"For God's sake Braz, make the call!" Josh finally was able to say. Serge eyed him concernedly. He was pale white and his hands hadn't left the safety harnesses on his seat.

"No, I'll make the call, I should make the call." Zimsky spat.

"Sixty five knots." Beck yelled over the din. "Depth eight five thousand feet."

"Look, guys..." Iverson cursed. Braz and Zimsky were still going at it. Finally, through everything they could all hear Serge's laughter.

"We're going to- It's a disaster!"

MISSION FAILURE appeared on all the screens. 

"What part of 'talk to me' don't you guys understand?" Iverson asked in a very pissed off way.

Stickley, from her position in the tower overhead, sighed and shook her head.

"For the twenty second time in a row, everyone on Earth is dead." she announced. Josh took a deep breath, happy that it was over. "Let's take a little quiet time, and you all are going to try this again."

~

Beck stepped around a very large, strange looking machine. Josh was working furiously under the table upon which it was placed.

"Hi." she smiled, getting his attention.

Josh looked up, alarmed and taken off guard. 

"Hi." His face brightened a little at the familiar face, and he started to work casually around the trinket upon the table.

"What is this?" she eyed it admirably. 

"Well, its a...I invented it." Josh said with some uncertainty. "It's how you're going to steer underground."

"It's um, not very good reception." she commented lightly.

"Well, you're looking through three feet of lead from fifty yards away, so...it ain't bad." he moved around, looking slightly offended but got back to work. "It's like a CAT scan at a hospital," he explained. "but its, uh, its-its souped-up. I invented it for Deep Earth surveying and then the government came in, bought my research, paid off my student loan guys and made me a consultant." he looked up and noticed her toggling with a few of the switches. "I'm sorry, this is really delicate; and I have it just the way I want it. So, um, excuse me." Beck smiled in a non-caring apology and moved to his other side. "Um, yeah. Then they brought me in when the pacemakers quit, and...boom--you know, I'm Apocalypse Boy."

"Apocalypse Boy?" she repeated with an uninterested smile. 

"Yeah." Josh laughed. "I'm having T-Shirts made up.

"Well, hats sell better." She stated, messing with a few more things behind him. Josh winced.

"You know, its funny, because that is right where it should be."

"Well..." she started to argue, moving back around to his side."

"I'm sorry. I'm a little ragged around the edges. I'm just trying to get this thing to focus correctly."

She bumped in front of him a bit, taking the initiative on the controls. "This is really cool, but, can I just...?" she toggled with a few more switches, bumped up the readings on a few screens, and adjusted a lever as Josh painstakingly watched from her side. The mechanism shifted slightly, and as he viewed the screen he laughed.

"It's better. It's better...uh..." he laughed, feeling ridiculous.

~

Josh was outside later that night, star-gazing as materials for their mission were being unloaded and stored just a few meters below his position. He paid it little attention as static discharge roared over his head.

"God, I hate this sky." he whispered.

~

Beck sat in the commander's seat of the makeshift test cockpit of Virgil. She glided carelessly through the imaginary layers and layers of the Earth's underground for countless minutes before finally a siren went off. The cockpit shuddered, and her enjoyable ride came immediately to a halt. She cursed herself and stressfully ran her fingers through her hair.

"Crashing one ship isn't enough for you?" Iverson appeared from the back.

"Hey," She greeted. "Practice makes perfect."

"You can practice all you like. Doesn't mean your ready to sit in that seat." he opened the gate that separated the cockpit from the walkway next to it.

"So you keep reminding me, sir." she spat sarcastically, switching off the shuttle.

"You know, I doubt you're even going to listen to this but I'm going to give it a shot." Iverson sighed, sitting down in one of the crew seats. Beck turned, phasing lack of interest. "Being a leader isn't about ability. It's about responsibility."

"Got it, sir." she nodded.

"No you don't, Beck." he argued gently. "I mean, you are not just responsible for making good decisions. You have to be responsible for the bad ones. You got to be ready to make the shitty call."

Beck frowned. "What makes you think I'm not?"

"Because you're so good." he stated. "You haven't hit anything you couldn't beat. I mean, hell, you were the one who figured out how to save the shuttle. You made me, you made the rest of NASA just look like an ass." Beck nodded. "It's just that, you're used to winning." Iverson sighed, standing up. "And you're not really a leader until you've lost." 

He left her to her thoughts then, frowning in the Commander's seat. A seat Rebecca Childs, for the first time in her life, seriously considered if she was good enough to fill.


	9. Superstorm

**__**

~

Chapter Nine

Superstorm

~

'Twenty million dollars has been spent developing this system!' Braz snapped at Zimsky as the crew walked along a landing strip near a desert military base. Serge and Josh were deep in conversation about food as the two older scientists argued. Iverson and Beck inserted their own opinions about dining during the mission.

"Steaks, an inch thick!" Josh said to Serge who was smiling.

"It's about nutrition!" Beck stated.

"Oh, come on, guys, the chefs at NASA-" Iverson interjected. 

"I wouldn't call them chefs." Zimsky argued. 

"It's about nutrition!" Beck repeated for the third time. "I think in five days I think-"

"I want wine! I need wine!" Zimsky whined.

"I'll cook for you, no worries-" Serge laughed, patting Josh's shoulder.

They continued their bickering and complaining until Josh ceased his walking. "Whoa!" he stated, eyeing the horizon line to the west. Serge stopped beside him as the others congregated nearby. A high powered electrical storm was forming just a few dozen miles away. "That's high level static discharge." Josh informed them as they each eyed the imminent storm with trepidation. 

"I think we should check this out." Beck stated, turning to the others with a furrowed brow. "This doesn't look so good."

Josh nodded his head in agreement. He continued to watch it until the others were well ahead of him, then started out at a brisk pace back toward the hanger.

~

The station was humming with whispering voices. Fear was in everyone's eyes. The crew piled into Rat's cubicle like area in the hanger. Serge, Josh, Beck, Iverson, Zimsky and Braz gathered around the small collection of computers where Purcell was already standing with Stickley. 

"It's a lightening superstorm." Josh explained as everyone found a place to view the show. 

"Popping up all over the world." Purcell informed them.

"Got 'em. Tracking." Rat stated, pressing one button. The computers went into a frenzy until at last a map lined with red came up over Rome, Italy. Serge's eyes lit up as he saw the nearness of the more powerful superstorm near France. He didn't say anything. There was no need. "Uh-oh. Rome does _not_ look good."

~

Rome, Italy...

A group of tourists turned their heads as the skies dramatically darkened overheard. Heat lightening formed rapidly in the clouds, more so than any of them had ever seen before. Some stood, some remained seated, not sure if this was typical weather for the time of year.

A small group of men were watching a football game in a nearby cafe, shouting angrily at the losing team or cheering wildly for the winning team. No one noticed the phenomenon outside. They continued on in their blissful ignorance, completely wrapped up in their sports station. Antonio served out lattes and watched with enthusiasm as the star player went to make a goal. 

Suddenly, the television turned to static. A gigantic uproar went through the tiny store as to what happened. Antonio raised a hand telling everyone to calm down. It was probably just a problem with the satellite. He went to toggle with the settings a bit when an electric shock ran through his finger. Claudia, the woman behind the counter shrieked as she was electrocuted by the latte machine.

The lights dimmed. People outside everywhere were running, seemingly for their lives, screaming and yelling. Lightening bolts struck the Coliseum where a large number of people were visiting. Continuously striking again and again as those outside watched with mystified horror. More bolts came down, here and there, everywhere! It was madness!

One bolt drove straight through the street, loosening concrete and stone. Inside, the Coliseum glowed as though a star had suddenly gone super nova within. Lightening struck other stone features and buildings, causing their pillars to collapse and the entire building to eventually fall in ruin. Statues imploded as the force of energy was sent vibrating through their motionless molecules, sending shards of stone and rock everywhere with the other collapsing architectural strongholds near and around the vicinity. 

Suddenly the Coliseum glowed almost as bright as the noon day sun. Pillars and columns and floors gave way, and the magnificent structure collapsed upon itself. Screams were heard throughout the streets. Terror was everywhere. No one understood why or how this was happening. 

Within minutes, the storm passed, thousands were missing, hundreds dead, and all of Rome burned. 

~

The crew sat and watched in fear as the rest of the world started to turn out the same way. China, Russia, Japan, Canada were all having electric superstorms. It was unimaginable!

"This planet is decaying faster than we thought." Josh whispered, and he began to search through some of Rat's papers, though for what no one knew. 

"It's just the start." came Zimsky, shaking his head, frowning curiously at the screens before them. The others were silent, too shocked to say anything. "Soon they'll be EM spikes and microwaves will break through the weak spots and-"

"All right." Came Purcell, already having heard enough. "Let's get this ship in the ground. Now."


	10. Virgil is Launched

**__**

~

Chapter Ten

Virgil Is Launched

~

Marianas Trench-South Pacific 

The helicopter was soon clear of all ocean, landing safely upon a tiny launch pad in the middle of the South Pacific ocean. Iverson leapt off first, followed closely by Beck. Josh then stepped off, Serge behind him, Braz, and then finally Zimsky. He looked scornfully up at the sky and tasting the bitter rain.

"Ah, summer in the Pacific." he whined as he caught up to Josh. The team walked somberly toward the ship, as a prisoner sometimes does on death row. Stoic faced but every ounce of muscle trembling. 

"Yeah, the world is inside out." Josh stated, keeping his eyes in front of him at all times. His eyes were diverted however once they reached the ship. For the first time, Josh saw her for what she truly was. Magnificent. A seemingly unbreakable piece of work. Suddenly, despite the rain, lightening, and overly tensed nerves in his body, he believed that everything would be okay for them.

"I was saving this for later," Serge stated, turning to the small circle they had unintentionally formed amongst themselves. "But this is the time for..." he trailed off and displayed a bottle of wine. Josh laughed briskly. Yeah, that was Serge for you. "Josh, do you mind?" he asked, handing it over.

"No not at all. Yeah." he took the bottle, twisted the cork, and held it up for all who were ready. "We should have a name for this baby."

"Oh, she's called Virgil, actually." Braz stated as he held out his paper cup and adjusted his bag on his shoulder. 

"Virgil--the poet that lead our man into the depths of hell?"

"That's it." Braz nodded.

"That's appropriate I guess." Josh frowned sternly, continuing the pouring of drinks. "Well, here's to Virgil." he raised his cup.

"For the planet." Serge raised his own cup. They all raised there's in turn. 

"To Virgil."

"To Virgil."

They each drank, taking another long look at the ships. Iverson finished off his drink and shook his head.

"No flashbulbs, no press, no cheering. It's...weird." He shook his head. The others eyed him uncomfortably. "Let's go." 

As a unit they moved toward their ship and what they inwardly believed was their doom.

~

Rat chewed idly on a Hot Pocket, listening to the radio conference between Virgil and Deep Earth Control. With five screens before him, he felt mighty powerful. Or at least he would have if he weren't so worried about the six people now heading into the depths of the world, with the probability of returning or even achieving their goal very unlikely.

"Cabin Pressure, TSI, three point five." Iverson's voice was heard over the Com.

"Check." Beck responded.

"ECS cabin repress open."

~

"And repress VLV close."

"Check." Beck stated. 

They were inside Virgil now, seated and belted, if not completely ready to go through with what they were doing. The order went as such, Commander Iverson in the driver's seat with Beck at his right hand. In the row behind them was Serge, and at his right hand was none other than Josh. Despite their field differences Deep Earth Control had been considerate enough to put the two closest team members side by side. However, that left a problem in the last row. Zimsky sat behind Serge, with Braz on his right. The trouble at least was behind the others, but there was some debate that leaving the side by side could cause a problem. Nothing the others couldn't handle for sure.

Josh swallowed hard. He suddenly realized that he really, _really_ didn't want to be here doing this. 

"Fluid dump valve."

"Check."

"We are about to begin our journey into the heart of the cosmos, into the very core of our own planet." Zimsky whispered into a tiny recorder.

"Close."

"Check."

"Forward dump valve open."

"Where we find therein..."

"Check."

"the secrets of the universe."

"Three point five PSI,"

"...the mysteries of time..."

"Check."

"LM circuit lock up."

"Check."

"...hope for the future."

"And signal."

"Deep Earth Control, this is Virgil. Signal check."

~

"This is Deep Earth Control." Came Stickley over the com. "I have thumbs-up across the board. You are clear to initiate power up."

~

Iverson reached up, flicked an assorted number of switches, and waited. The humming told them that the drills on Virgil's sides were powered up, spinning, and eager to start working. 

"Reactor power confirmed." Iverson reported. 

"At one thousand RPM, we will countdown to launch. On your mark." Stickley announced.

Serge sat rigid in his seat. Josh at his side was praying in his. 

~

"Pad leader, stand by for launch." Stickley announced.

~

Braz reached up and pat his ship. 

"All right, Virgil." he encouraged more himself than the piece of metal they were diving down to the core in. 

The system, all too soon for those inside, reached one hundred percent.

~

"Gantry count." Stickley said as confidently as possible. "Ten, nine, eight, seven..."

~ 

Josh gulped hard in his seat.

"...six,"

Serge eyed him nervously, then adjusted himself in his own seat. 

"...five,"

Zimsky closed his eyes, bracing himself.

"...four,"

Braz closed his eyes.

~

Rat's eyes lit up in concern.

"...three,"

Purcell swallowed hard, though his mouth was already dry.

"...two,"

Stickley faced the screen before her unflinchingly. 

"...one. Launch."

~

The bolts opened, and Virgil was released into the roaring, vengeful sea. Everyone inside braced themselves for the roller-coaster ride ahead.

BAM! Virgil hit the sea. 

No one moved as they felt the rapid descent through not only matter and Earth, but time itself. This was nothing like any of them had ever experienced before, and they doubted it would be again.

"Five hundred feet." Beck announced stoically.

"Leveling out." came Iverson.

They continued diving. Downward, downward, spiraling toward an undefined abyss.

"Okay guys, lets swing forward." Iverson announced. Everyone did so, slightly grudgingly as they all realized this was a big mistake. 

"Eight hundred feet." Beck smiled.

"Light 'em up, Beck." Iverson grinned. She smiled wider and turned on their guide lights. 

"Gyro leveling operational." Braz reported.

"Hull integrity holding." Serge announced.

They continued to fall down. The ship wasn't at full power yet, so they were really gliding through the ocean. The decent was fast and even for some moments.

"I'm going to keep her nose down about fifteen degrees and...oh, my goodness." Iverson looked up to see a pod of whales swimming in their path. Low, mournful sounds could be heard from them as they descended deeper and deeper into the ocean. 

Rat, from DEC listened intently to the song, mystified, and yet saddened at the sullen note they carried in their harmonization.

"They're singing to us." Beck smiled. 

Braz looked up, smiling. "Virgil's resonance tubes are powered up, so they're vibrating sub sonically. Actually, we're singing to them." he smiled, moved by the sight. Perhaps this was a good omen for their team.

Yet almost as quickly as it began, it ended, and the entire ship quivered with them inside. The pods of whales shifted and disappeared from view, their moving song leaving with them.

"What's our depth?" Josh asked hurriedly.

"Sixteen hundred feet." Beck answered. "Plenty of room on both sides."

"Hull integrity is good." Serge announced.

"You sure?" Josh inquired, sifting through feedback on his computer screen.

"Let's increase impeller speed." Braz suggested. "I think we'll be needing additional control." Iverson did as he commanded.

~

"Stick, I'm getting a seismic reading." announced John from the lower computing level of DEC.

"What's happening?" Purcell demanded as calmly as possible.

"T-phase." Stickley answered. "Underwater Earthquake."

~

"Still think the water launch was a good idea?" Braz inquired mockingly toward Zimsky.

"Yes." the man responded vehemently. "Yes I chose this location because the crust is thin here. "The downside is...there's lots of seismic activity."

"Four thousand feet." Beck announced.

Josh looked up on the screens. The underwater cliffs that they had been gliding through before were now coming to pieces above their head. He swallowed hard. They were in trouble. 

"You see that rock?" he warned, his eyes never leaving his computer screen. "That is not good."

THUD. THUD. Two rocks hit the surface of Virgil's exterior, causing Josh and Serge to shift uncomfortably in their seats. But things got worse when Iverson began to talk.

"We are losing steering here. There's some kind of crosscurrent." 

"Oh..." Josh sighed from his seat.

"Fourteen thousand feet." Beck announced stiffly. 

~

Virgil worked fast against what seemed to be some sort of underwater suction. Unfortunately it was throwing them in the direction opposite their path. Virgil fought hard, but the current was too fast.

"Okay guys, fasten your seatbelts." Iverson warned. "We're turning into the skid." he changed direction. Everyone within Virgil felt the effect. 

~

"Eighteen thousand." said an older man beside Stickley. "Eighteen five."

"They're going way too fast." 

~

"Twenty one thousand feet." Beck announced. Serge turned to face Josh.

"We hit the wall we're rabbits on the highway."

"Pressure, pressure, pressure, pressure." Braz chanted in his seat.

"What do you mean, pressure?" Zimsky spat. "I thought you said this thing was indestructible!"

"I said the pressure makes us stronger. We just don't have enough of it yet."

"We're at twenty one thousand feet, pull out, sir." Beck ordered.

"Can't." Iverson confirmed.

Beck focused her gaze on Iverson.

"What?"

"We're locked in."

"Go to full throttle!" Braz commanded. The ship seemed to tense. "Standby to engage front and lateral lasers, please."

Serge turned his head as far as he could. "But what if we hit bottom in ten seconds here?"

Josh looked up and around. He suddenly didn't like the idea of Virgil being his tomb.

"Just give it a couple more seconds." Braz encouraged. "The lasers will fire."

The lasers started to spin, but no effect.

"No, there's not enough time for power up." Iverson commented.

"Twenty seven thousand feet." Beck warned.

Josh looked angrily around.

"The lasers will deploy." Braz continued.

Serge never looked more frightened in his life. The lasers started to spin faster and faster, but still nothing.

"Twenty nine thousand feet." Beck tensed visibly in her seat.

"Do it!" Zimsky shouted.

"And..." Braz went on.

"Do it!" Josh yelled.

"Now!"

The lasers deployed. The rock before them disintegrated and carved a perfect path just as they dove headlong into the crust of the Earth. Virgil passed through without trouble. She slipped through, and the crust hardened once more behind her. 

~

Waiting was hell. Stickley, Purcell, Rat, and all others waited stiffly for the signal to reach through to them.

"And we've got a signal!" John called. 

"Yeah!" 

"All right!"

A great roar of applause broke through. Stickley smiled.

~

Serge and Josh broke out into nerve lessening chuckles. 

"All right." Josh sighed afterward. "Switching on electron spin burst transmitters."

"Plotting through lowest density material, reconfiguring every five minutes."

"Hull integrity one hundred percent." Braz announced. "Reactor power one hundred percent."

"All green on the bomb compartment." Serge sighed in satisfaction. 

"Speed is sixty knots." Josh confirmed.

"Hot damn." Beck laughed.

"All right," Zimsky stated. "We'll be through the crust in fifteen minutes into the mantle. Twenty four hours to the core, and then assuming we survive-"

"Assuming?" Josh turned his head.

"Yes, assuming." Zimsky commented. Josh pulled his head back with his overly used _Oh great_ look on his face. "Another fifteen hours to the inner-outer core border."

~

"They're doing well." Purcell commented.

"The crust is just rock." Stickley commented. "Now it gets interesting."

~

"Virgil, can we get a status check?" Stick came in over the com.

"We're about to make the transition into the mantle." Beck confirmed.

With the most painful and suspenseful part of the mission now finished, all eyes were on the visuals screens. An amazing labyrinth of molten rock and liquids swam past their eyes in a plethora of different colors. Crystal formations, deep caverns and amazing sights the likes none had ever seen before. It was heaven below the surface, and they were the first to experience it. 

~

"Come on, come on." Iverson encouraged the ship forward. 

Within moments they made it. The only confirmation was their own eyes, the computer readings, and Serge's relieved sigh. 

"Well, exterior pressure is eight hundred thousand pounds per square inch." he announced, looking at his computer. He then aimed a confident smile at Josh. "And hull integrity is one hundred percent." Josh smiled, saluted, and began to analyze his own readings.

"It is as if we're diving through the memories of the planet." Zimsky was again speaking into his little recorder. "But we are about to pass from memory into madness."

Braz took a sharp breath.

"Are you going to be doing that Carl Sagan narration all the way to the core?" he asked, pushing his glasses onto the bridge of his nose.

"I beg your pardon?" Zimsky asked, leaning forward in his seat.

"I said..."

"I-I have an obligation to my students, to my readers..."

"Obligation to make a book deal, perhaps." Braz commented.

"Two book deals, if you'd like to know the truth."

Serge rolled his eyes in his seat, smiling. Beck and Iverson exchanged entertained expressions.

"I read that last book. It wasn't very good."

"Oh really? Really?" Zimsky asked. Josh grinned as Beck turned her head to send a smile his way. "And when did you learn how to read?"

The argument went on, but no one really listened.

**__**

Author's Note: Holy hell was that long. But it was fun. ^_^ Only one more original chapter left, then I get to mutate this story the way it should have been. (Evil laughter) 

(Hugs Serge)

Serge: Joshua!!!!

^_^


	11. Giant Gem Bubble

__

Hey, wow. Lots of new reviewers. Well thank you everyone! I'm afraid no one is going to die, and that includes Zimsky and Beck. As far as relationships go, I'm writing a follow-up story after this one that will focus more on the romance between Josh and Beck. I know they had a sort of kiss of joy, but I think there may have been more between them as well. Hollywood actually neglected the romance (everyone gasps) and so I'm going to take that up later on in the hopefully soon to come "Furtive Sedition". ^_^ For now, everyone enjoy, because the changes will NOW BEGIN!!!

****

~

Chapter Eleven

Giant Gem Bubble

~

12 Hours in; 700 Miles Down

So far, the ride had been smooth. There had been no trouble whatsoever, and the tension between Zimsky and Braz had been taken care of by Josh and Serge, keeping the duo separated whenever possible. Iverson sat comfortably in his seat, eyes focused dead on the screen, when a strange, dulled form of static became apparent. He frowned and looked questioningly toward Beck. This certainly wasn't good. Josh Keyes walked seemingly oblivious into the cockpit of the ship, seeming oblivious to his current position. Something was going through his head, but no one noticed his distracted mood. 

'People." Iverson stated with some strain, drawing Josh from his idle mindedness. "Doctors Zimsky and Keyes?" he pointed at the screen. Josh stepped forward, frowning. Zimsky joined him at his side a few seconds later looking disturbed. "You guys are our resident geophysicists. What do you make of this?"

Zimsky bit his lip. "Um. The mantle is a chemical hodgepodge of...a variety of elements..." he strained to make sense of himself, as if he believed their respect for him diminished by the second. Braz leaned over his shoulder.

"Say it with me: I don't know." he mocked. Zimsky rolled his eyes and frowned bitterly.

"Well commander." Serge came in with a small chuckle. "Wise men say, 'When in doubt you should go around.'"

"No it's too big." Beck objected. "We turn too slow." There was a pause. "Anything that we can't go through displays as black. So what's...what's static?"

"It's nothing." Josh unwittingly answered, leaning against Beck's seat lost in frustration at his lack of knowledge. 

Braz frowned and turned his gaze toward the young scientist. "What do you mean?" 

"It's nothing." he answered again. His voice was building. Suddenly the nothing wasn't nothing. It _was _nothing, but that was something for them. A big problem. Zimsky's eyes were now on Josh as well, questioning. Suddenly Josh's head flew up, eyes wide and full of panic. "It's empty space."

Braz's eyes widened, and he moved quickly to his seat. Zimsky's eyes did the same. He did a few double-takes between Josh and the screen before finally moving to his own seat. Beck and Iverson looked up at Josh, concerned. Everyone soon rushed to their seats. "I never taught the computer how to read empty space." 

"And I never taught Virgil how to fly." Braz added.

Zimsky stuck a cigarette in his mouth as he fastened his belts tightly. Serge rushed through his own belt arrangement.

"Oh, God." Iverson braced himself. The static exploded on the screen just as Josh turned his head to see if Serge was fastened in. He himself only had one shoulder harness on, but he wasn't concerned with that. At the beginning of the trip they had all had a problem getting the belts fastened, but Serge had had the worst time with it. Josh reached up to clasp his last harness, but it was too late. 

Virgil broke through the barrier sooner then any of them had anticipated. Zimsky was thrown forward in his seat, biting the end of his cigarette clean off. Braz went forward with a grunt. Iverson and Beck, familiar with this extreme display of gravitational force, pushed themselves as far back against their seats as they could. Serge's head flung forward and snapped violently. Josh lunged ahead at an angle, snapping his one braced shoulder and sending the other forward along with his head, nearly hitting the back of Beck's seat.

"Oh, no man!" Braz grunted as his braces started to choke him. Iverson and Beck held well, but Josh was fighting against hell to keep in his seat. He hung limp at an angle as the nerves in his right shoulder were pinched beyond anything he could bear. His right hand went dead at his side and hung forward along with the rest of him. 

Serge struggled in his own seat as Zimsky tried to adjust himself in his. Virgil flew forward at an incredible speed, forward and down. 

"Oh, dear God." Iverson whispered. Suddenly he saw solid floor beneath them, lined with sharp and solid crystals. Iverson grasped the back of his seat, the others wishing desperately that they had the strength to do the same. Suddenly all were jolted backwards, then forward once more as the ship careened across the floor and the field of crystals miles wide and yards high. 

Josh couldn't do anything as he struggled to keep his limp body in some kind of control. He heard Serge cry out beside him, and that was enough to bring him back into a semiconscious state. Zimsky and Braz struggled to keep themselves in their own seats, Zimsky grunting as he seemed to be fighting off the belts. As the G's around them grew, the straps became tighter. Beck and Iverson in the front row seemed to be faring just find, but their crew might as well have been dying or dead behind them. There were no helpful responses other than Zimsky's grunts and Serge's shouts of pain. Josh was being thrown every which way in his seat, and unfortunately no one noticed. 

Then, just as quickly as hell began, it stopped. Everyone was thrown full force forward, and then collapsed into their seats. Virgil was no longer moving, but no one seemed to mind at the moment. Josh turned his head toward Serge.

"Serge, you all right?"

The old man winced, turned his head and nodded. "Yeah."

"Anybody hurt?" Iverson asked. 

Braz and Zimsky exchanged glances momentarily before turning their heads away with a non caring glare. Beck turned her head toward Serge to confirm her concerns. The Frenchman's eyes were on Josh, who was finally pulling himself out of his seatbelts.

"No." Zimsky breathed. 

"You okay?" Josh asked Iverson.

"Yeah."

Josh looked at Serge, and then past him, frowning.

"What's that? What is that?" Zimsky asked in concern. Serge looked up to see a fog like substance pouring in over his head.

"From the cooling system." Braz confirmed. "Shut that down."

Serge stood and reached for it. "I told you go around her. Nobody listens to me." 

"Where in God's name are we?" Beck asked in confusion.

"Whatever has us jammed up is inside our lasers." Iverson noted, staring concernedly into the screens. "Shut 'em down." He looked at Beck. "We're not going anywhere."

Beck sighed. "Powering down." she hit the power switches. The lasers died, and Virgil was left in the dark. She turned her seat to face the man behind her. "Josh, is there any other image you can pull up?"

He glanced into his computer.

"Nope. Whatever it is, it's also inside our MRI cameras." He got up, stretched, and started to adjust a few of his settings. 

"We have to go outside." Braz declared.

Serge sat up and turned his head. "What?" He didn't like the idea.

"Believe me." Josh came in. "I hate to admit it, but I think he's right."

Zimsky jumped from his seat like a kid on Christmas. "I'm coming with. I want to collect samples-"

"Wait, hang on, hang on." Iverson interjected. 

"Wait, the first problem is the only way we came out of the ship is the way we came in..." Beck came in over the commander. "Which is through the impeller outlet,"

"Which is still at five thousand degrees." Serge went on.

"Exactly, I mean-"

"I'll just flush it with liquid nitrogen from the cooling system." Braz responded as if it were the easiest problem in the world.

"Wait." Josh argued. "The cooling system that's keeping us from roasting to death in this ship?" He smiled mockingly.

"Well, just a small part of it."

Nervous glances went through the entire crew. Iverson decided this was his time to take the initiative. 

"Alternatives? Anybody?"

Serge moved to object, then thought twice. It wasn't up to him anyway.

~

Josh was the first to step out onto the new frontier. At first, all his eyes could see was the liquid nitrogen leaking out to help cool the space for them to exit out of Virgil. Then his eyes fell upon the most beautiful and horrifying sight his eyes had laid eyes on. A giant crystal jammed into the propeller of the ship, as wide as he was and definitely twice as tall, or would have been if it weren't lying at an angle.

"Whoa, whoa that's it." Iverson stated as he came after.

"It's like a giant...giant crystal." Josh stated, eyeing it with amazement.

"Where the hell are we?" Zimsky looked around in amazement. They ignored him.

"Well the good news is, it looks like the suits can take the pressure." Iverson came in. He inspected the crystal more closely. "It's completely jammed the laser assembly. We just...we got to hope if we can cut it loose they're still functional."

"Careful." Josh hissed as they carried out the equipment to melt the crystal. "Okay." he handed a few chords and hoses to Iverson. "Beck, try the lights would you?"

"Lighting up." she responded from inside. She and Serge had remained behind as the others did their job. The lights came on, and all four men stood in amazement. 

"Oh, it's magnificent." Josh stated with awe.

"Oh, my God." Iverson gazed out over the sight.

"Aladdin's cave." Braz laughed with some humor.

"It's like a crystal Grand Canyon." Zimsky stated.

They stood before a vast horizon of amethyst crystals, jutting out at all angles and elevations for miles on end. Every turn revealed a labyrinth of rotating lights and brilliant visualizations that even the most illogical of all the geoscientists could not imagine. 

"I think it's a geode." Zimsky contemplated, speaking excitedly. "But I don't understand how it could have survived down here.

"Cobalt shell, maybe?" Josh suggested, looking up and around.

"No. I-I mean...in a magma environment of five thousand degrees. Something would have to protect it." He gazed in awe a bit longer. "Unbelievable."

"Zimsky." 

"Yeah."

Josh smiled. "We're inside a giant gem-bubble, wrapped in a cobalt cocoon, seven hundred miles below the surface of the Earth." he laughed. "Hell of a day."

Zimsky chuckled, walking backwards. "Yes, it is."

"I'll start cutting." Braz informed them.

"Okay, Braz." Iverson responded. "I'm going to check the hull. Call me if you need me."

"Okay."

Braz flipped a few more switches, and immediately the drill started to do its job. Suddenly, Josh saw something flaming red and orange sweep down just a few inches past his face, and fall smoldering to his feet. He looked down and could not believe what he saw. Immediately his gaze went up and confirmed his worst fears.

"Oh no." he breathed. He ran back toward Zimsky who was carving a few samples of his own from the crystal. "Zimsky!" 

"Yeah?"

"Zimsky, look!" he pointed upward, but the man was only half listening. He held up a small crystal piece, eyeing it with amazement.

"Look, it's an amethyst." His eyes went up past the crystal to where Josh was pointing. "Oh, God. We've breached the shell." As he spoke, the small opening suddenly exploded into a leak the proportion of the Hoover Dam collapsing. Gallons started to pour in my the millisecond, and they were powerless to protect themselves. Worse yet, the crystals upon the roof of the 'cocoon' were detaching and falling from the heavens down upon the damned scientists who had somehow found their own hell in this place.

Iverson cried out as crystal shards crashed down over him. A few heavier ones hit Braz, Zimsky, and Josh on the other side of the ship. Those inside heard their cries and waited desperately for them to finish their job and return safely.

"Guys, you don't have to be here I want you back inside." Iverson commanded. A giant crystal crashed behind them, a few inches away from Zimsky and Keyes. 

"Well, I think that means me." Zimsky smiled politely to Josh and waltzed back into the ship before anymore harm could befall them. "Orders are orders."

Josh moved in after him until Braz called his name.

"Wait, Josh, the problem is I'm losing oxygen."

Leaving his position of abandonment, he ran back toward the drill and Braz.

"Braz, what can I do?"

"Check the feeds for me." he answered while struggling to work quickly with the failing instrument. "Check the feeds for me, Josh." The young man leapt over the crystal, brushed off the drill's engine and toggled a few switches in hopes that that may revive it. Nothing. "Quick!"

"I'm coming. I'm coming. I'm coming as fast as I can." Josh whispered into his mic, knowing damn well that Braz couldn't hear him. He was starting to panic. They were going to all fry up out here if he didn't find a way to solve this dilemma quick, and that meant those inside would be stuck here. As if to remind him furthermore of their predicament, Serge came in over the coms.

~

"Hey guys, at this rate we only have three minutes before the lava gets us."

"Come on guys." Beck tapped her fingers nervously at her seat. "Come on."

~

Josh, frustrated beyond compare, slapped the drill engine and looked helplessly to Braz.

"It's not going to work without oxygen!" Braz cried, equally frustrated. "We're losing oxygen."

With a great sigh, knowing very well that this was probably going to cost him his life, Josh did the best thing he could think of. Disconnecting his own oxygen tank, he reconnected it to the drill. There. The damn thing would run and he got to be a hero. Josh sighed, satisfied with the conclusion, other then the factor of him winding up dead. _Better to be just me then all of us._ He thought.

"I fixed it." he announced, taking a breath but realizing that was not the best idea. "Now, cut."

"That's good. It's working now. It's working _well_ now." the old man was practically jumping in joy. "That's good, Josh."

The younger of the two shook his head, already he was getting dizzy. 

~

Serge checked the monitor almost fifty times over, but every time it told him what he didn't want to know. 

"Josh's vital signs are dropping." he whispered more to himself than Beck, who heard clearly from her front seat. The Frenchman listened with a heavy heart as the heart monitor on his friend beat slower and slower. The oxygen rate through the boyd had nearly depleted, and it was only a matter of time before he lost consciousness, and after that....Serge didn't want to think about it. He blew a sigh in hopes that it might relieve the guilt he felt, and left the room in a hurry. He didn't trust the others to take care of him if something was really wrong.

"Serge!" Beck cried after him, but he didn't listen. He didn't care.

~

"You're almost there. You're almost there, Josh." Braz encouraged the dizzying Josh. He tried to hold onto the man's voice, but it was too hard. The images before him blurred and darkened, then spiraled into a mass of confusion and color. Soon the voices blurred and blended with all the noise around him, and the last thing Josh knew was that he was falling. He was falling and no one was catching him. Everything went black, and that was it. He hit his head hard going down, causing Iverson to fear the worst. 

"Josh!" he yelled over the numerous yards that separated them. With surprising energy he ran forward, not sure if Braz was aware that one of their team members had collapsed. He was, though, and with a final surge of energy and frustration he kicked the crystal. Ten damn times he put his foot to the thing, and on the eleventh time it finally fell free from the lasers. It was at that time that Serge, with a bitter frown on his face, crawled out from the end of Virgil in full gear. He ignored the others and turned his gaze toward the man lying on the ground.

"Joshua!" he cried, running forward. 

"Okay guys," Iverson stated. 

"Connect the oxygen." Serge demanded.

Josh's head was in Serge's lap. Iverson leaned over them to protect them from falling shards as Braz worked frantically to connect the oxygen. The lights on Josh's helmet showed that his lips were blue and his eyes had rolled up in the back of his head. He was alive, but for how much longer was the question.

"Okay Braz, you got that?"

"Yes. Connected!"

~

"Good. I got to check these lasers." Beck heard them from her position within Virgil. Her heart calmed knowing that everyone and everything was going to be all right.

~

"Okay Beck, turn 'em over." Iverson commanded, standing on a precarious perch over the growing ocean of lava just a few inches away. Braz and Serge were carrying Josh inside. "Pre-lasers only. if you don't mind." he added with a laugh.

~

"Initiating." Beck confirmed from the cockpit.

~

"This better work." Iverson stated, looking down at the growing ocean of lava. It was just a few inches away from where he stood, lapping at the crystal bay mockingly. "The tide's really coming in." He turned when he heard the spiraling sound of the lasers. His hands raised in celebration. "We got lucky I think we're going to swim right out of this one!" Something sharp smacked his arm, and it stung bitterly, but he brushed it aside, dodging crystals and running forward to the safety of Virgil once more.

~

Beck laughed in her seat, tears nearly in her eyes for the happiness that she felt. 

"All right Beck, we're coming in. Initiate start sequence." 

~

"Careful!" Serge hissed as they moved quickly through the crawlspace into Virgil once more. Too many times Braz had stepped sidelong and slammed Josh into the wall. 

"Sorry, I'm sorry." Braz apologized. The Frenchman was getting anxious and angry at every delayed second. 

~

"Start the impellers." Bob urged as they moved quickly into the ship. "And activate bulkhead doors."

~

Beck smiled, confident in herself that everything would be all right. 

~

Commander Bob Iverson entered just as the doors closed, and they slid easily into the lava where the rest of their adventure awaited them. But as he removed his helmet he saw Josh lying still on the floor. Serge was trying to revive him as Braz struggled to remove the suit. 

"We've got a problem." he announced. Bob's heart fell to his feet. Josh had stopped breathing.

__

Don't worry. Remember, no one dies. I just love drama. ^_^ How was that?


	12. Serge?

**__**

~

Chapter Twelve

Serge?

~

After a few hectic minutes the crew had managed to get Josh into the medical pod. His shirt, socks, and shoes had been removed, and he himself lay unresponsive on a cold metal table. Beck worked frantically to make sure his heartbeat had stabilized. Serge held an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose so as to guarantee a full amount into his weakened lungs. Beck checked his eyes to see if they had come back to their original position. She frowned and shook her head, glancing worriedly at Serge who's gaze had not left the young man's expressionless face. Zimsky, Braz, and Iverson were standing there also, ready to help when needed. They weren't about to let one of their own go just yet. 

Beck turned from the table, frustrated and fearful. If Josh didn't pull out of his condition soon, who knew what might be wrong with him? She could barely bring herself to face the others. Situations were bad. 

Serge sat focused on his job. The oxygen was flowing smoothly, but Josh's heartbeat was irregular, and that meant his breathing was irregular. He wasn't receiving the gas in healthy amounts, and if that continued then there was nothing else they could do for him. He sighed, heavy hearted and fearful. He looked up once at Braz behind him, then turned his face away. His eyes revealed all too well that he was more than a little concerned. Braz nodded his head in silent understanding. The crew knew how close these two were, almost as close as Zimsky and Braz, only without the negative tension. Perhaps as close as Bob and Beck, only without the air of one's superiority over the other. No. Of all the compatible pairs, Josh and Serge were the closest, and they knew the loss of one would heavily hinder and pang the other. None were willing to let Josh go more so for Serge's sake than their own.

Suddenly, Josh's body went rigid and then relaxed, giving the impression that an electric shock had just spiraled through his spine. His eyes shot open, and with a look of utter confusion he bolted up into a sitting position. 

"You okay?" Beck asked, slightly amazed but relieved all the more. Josh suddenly fell backwards as swiftly as he came up, but he caught himself on his elbows. "You're going to be weak." He nodded. "You're okay." she pat his shoulder. 

Zimsky and Serge exchanged happy smiles as Braz nodded his head in satisfaction. 

"Good job." Zimsky smiled. "Good job. Good man."

"I'm fine. Thank you." He told Beck, rocking his head a little to ease the dizziness. 

"Well done, well done." 

Iverson pat his shoulder from behind. "We've got some good news, Doctor Keyes."

"Yeah?" He looked up, smiling. 

"You saved the shuttle, and all our lives." 

"That's g...that's good news." Josh laughed. "Oh," he sighed, rubbing his face. "It is hot in here."

"Yeah, that nitro we flushed out of the cooling system, it's...it's causing things to heat up a little." Braz explained. "I'm going to go back and just make some adjustments."

"I'll lend you a hand." Zimsky offered with a smile. The others seemed slightly surprised at the offer, but no one objected. Zimsky and Braz worked their way toward the edge of the pod, each patting Josh's shoulder as they went on. 

"I'm going to check your heartbeat, okay?" Beck stated, rubbing her wrist. Josh nodded, still struggling to keep the room from spinning. Iverson left the room as well with a glance back, leaving the three to talk or do whatever it was they needed to do. Beck ran around, lost in thought and business. Serge took this opportunity to talk.

"You're going to be okay." Josh, nodding once more, finally sat up fully. "You gave us a good scare though."

"Did I?" he asked, smiling and beginning to put on his missing articles of clothing. "Sorry about that."

Beck left soon after, smiling fondly toward Josh once more before finally disappearing outside. The two suspected that all others had left in order to give the friends some time alone. Both were appreciative. 

"Yeah." Serge sniffed and nodded his head. His gaze didn't meet Josh's. The young scientist frowned.

"You okay?"

Serge blinked a few times, rolled his eyes and shrugged. 

"Just a little tired, I guess."

"You should go rest then."

Serge shook his head, objecting. "Not that kind of tired." Josh's brow furrowed slightly. The Frenchman laughed idly, then shook his head. Running a finger under his nose, he knew he probably had to explain himself. But not now. He smiled and pat Josh's shoulder.

"It all seems to big, doesn't it?" he asked in a gentle whisper. "I think you were attempting the impossible." he stood. "You were trying to save the world and...it's overwhelming." Josh nodded, agreeing. "I came here to save my wife and my two children and...six billion lives..." he blew a sigh, "It's too much." Serge suddenly leaned in closer, a knowing and wise smile on his face. "I just hope I-I'm smart enough and brave enough to save three." Josh's eyes gazed sternly back into Serge's, and he saw the man's point. Serge smiled then, more easily and pat his shoulder. "You did a nice job, Joshua." he commented, rubbing his shaking hand through the young man's hair. "Very nice. Great."

Josh shook his head and laughed. "You'd have done the same thing."

"Well maybe, maybe." he cocked his head, winked, and then left Josh alone in the room for a few moments to ponder over his actions, or other things.

~

__

Mission Day Two

Beck sat in the commander's seat while Iverson slept for a few hours. They took their positions in shifts now, as they got later into the mission. It was part of the reason why they had two terranauts to drive Virgil and two geophysicists. If one was sleeping, the other was surely awake to fill the stead of the missing person. She was proud to say she was doing rather well. Zimsky was in his seat, doing something concerning no one else. Her eyes gazed with wonder into the screen, they were nearing their target.

"Hey guys," she announced with a smile. "We're close to the mantle core interface. Where are you?"

~

"Keys in, Dr. Brazzelton." Serge stated as they checked the condition on the nukes. "Ready."

Josh heard Beck's voice over the coms and decided to respond first. "We are in the..."

"Okay, the code, 0-1-3-1-9-9-5."

"...luxurious, beautiful weapons control...checking the controls on the nukes."

"This is the birthday of my daughter." Serge concluded proudly. 

"0-1-3-1-9-9-5" Braz repeated.

"Chantel?"

"Yeah." he smiled to Josh. "Ready? Three, two and one..."

Josh leaned in close to get a good view, but Braz had to pull him back. "Thank you. Green. All green." he confirmed. 

"Great. So we have to synchronize the babies now." Serge stated, switching a few more buttons and keys. A distinct buzzing was heard. Josh watched with interest, like a kid, Serge noted with an inner smile. "Wait a second." he urged. A click resonated through the pod. "There." Serge confirmed. "All right, now lets put them to bed."

~

Beck's eyes were hard set on the monitors before her. But as she gazed into the seemingly endless abyss, she noted something that disturbed her greatly.

"Zimsky, could you please come up here for a second?" she asked with some concern in her voice.

He left his seat and walked as though very perturbed with the interruption toward the front of the cockpit. "Yes?"

"We're not supposed to go through anything black."

"Yes, so please don't." 

"What is this?"

A great field of black mass came over the screen. Large chunks heavy and thick enough to squash Virgil between the two and destroy the ship for sure. Zimsky stared long and hard into the monitor, trying to sort out the mess before his eyes. 

"Oh my God," he exclaimed in realization. He grabbed Beck's shoulder in excitement. "They're diamonds!"

"Great." Beck sighed in frustration. "You might want to sit down and buckle up. We're on a collision course here."

Zimsky didn't waste a second getting to his seat. Beck turned on the coms again. This wasn't going to be easy. Virgil soared straight into the diamond field, with the only way out just ahead. Unfortunately, it wasn't a direct path, and Virgil was not made for direct turns.

~

"All rightie. Careful." Serge warned, taking one of the nuke timers and handing it with both hands to Josh who received it both excitedly and concernedly. He stuck them back in their proper containment units as Serge released the others from their settings. 

~

"Guys," Beck came in sharply. "We're dodging diamonds here the size of Cape Cod, so bear with me. Not exactly nimble here."

She did all she could to make smooth turns, but she knew sooner or later they were going to be meeting up with one of those floating assassins. 

~

"Diamonds?" Josh asked with interest over the coms. "I want some." 

Serge laughed.

"Can I help?" Braz offered. The ship was shaking now, and not to anyone's comfort. Iverson was wakened in his bed and was now carefully making his way to the cockpit. He'd heard Beck's call and decided that any help she would need would be a great benefit. 

~

Virgil dodged left and right, surprisingly a smooth flight for the conditions she was under. Beck maneuvered her beautifully, and Iverson stood in the back of the room deciding now was not the time to say anything that might distract her or make her lose confidence. A few thuds were all that were heard.

"Ooh!" She exclaimed with a wince, as though she were feeling the beating she was now putting the ship through. 

~

Serge looked up in panic as the roof seemed to explode above them. 

"Okay. It's okay." Braz encouraged, his faith holding strong with his baby. Josh looked up in concern as Serge wiped some sweat from his brow.

~

"Okay!" Beck yelled happily over the coms. "It looks like we're in the clear!"

Iverson smiled, knowing well that his confidence and trust was well placed still. He started back toward the living quarters when Beck shouted out in anger. A loud explosion like sound was heard from the weapons control module, and all looked up as they knew death came for them. Beck had scraped a perfect gash along the side of Virgil, and there was no lasting it.

"Breach!" She screamed through the coms. "Guys! Weapons control, get out! Get out now!"

~

Beck didn't have to say it twice. Braz flew from the compartment, followed by Josh with Serge taking up the lead. Iverson cursed and ran to the back of the ship, knowing well they'd need help. 

The distinct hum of the compartment doors reached Serge's ears, and he turned with a dawning realization. If they left the setters in there, they would be lost, and with them all hopes of saving the world. With only one a look back he returned to the already collapsing pod. He grabbed the nuke controls and started to place them as gently as possible into their containing boxes.

"Serge!" Josh screamed from the opposite compartment. "Serge! What the hell are you doing? Come on!"

Serge took the nuke setters and handed them to Josh who passed them idly to Braz. He took them and turned to see Iverson running toward them. 

"Bob!" He yelled. The commander pushed past the engineer and fell into Josh, knocking him into the weapons room. 

"My notebook!" Serge yelled. "You'll need it!" He ran around frantically for the violey, sticker covered notebook that held within it all the component information and directions for setting off the bombs. Josh, dazed from the sudden force exerted on him, looked up and saw it hanging from a shelf. 

"Here!" He yelled, tossing it to the Frenchman. "Go! Go!" Serge fled from the compartment and into the adjacent pod. His eyes flew back in time to see Josh crawling under the last door. Braz and Iverson pulled him up just as the bulkhead door closed for good.

Serge was leaning heavily against the opposite wall, breathing and panting, his eyes not leaving the time setter box until Josh fell into position beside him, panting and trying to blink back tears at the realization of what they all could have lost. Serge placed a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder and pulled him into an embrace. 

"You okay?" he asked at last. Josh smiled.

"Yeah, just tired."

Braz and Iverson laughed. Serge turned his head around and pointed at the box. "You can probably just put those in navigation for right now." he stated, looking to Josh. "Is that okay?"

The man nodded. "Yeah, yeah." Iverson rubbed his hand over his face.

"I trust if there are no other interruptions..." he started with a mock air of annoyance.

Serge waved him off. "Yes you can go...thank you..." Iverson smiled, nodded his head and left. Braz took the time setters and left behind Iverson, once again leaving Josh and Serge alone. Both were now on opposite sides of the pod, breathing heavily.

"I've been thinking." Josh breathed, rubbing a hand through his hair. 

"Yeah?" Serge breathed, his face pulled up in an exhausted frown. 

"I'm going to go to Paris." Serge's brow raised in interest. "And we'll...we'll go out after this." Serge smiled. "After this is all said and done. All right?"

Serge laughed, nodded his head, and smiled broadly.

"I think I might like that."

Josh smiled, nodded, and stood. "I think we'd better get back."

Serge nodded and started back toward the cockpit. He ran a hand over his mouth and looked back as Josh made his way after him. Serge smiled, shook his head and continued forward. Josh smiled inwardly, knowing that this time he was keeping his promise.

__

All right, well, that was incredibly painful to watch three times over. I hope I didn't misspell anything, but I had to fight off tears as well as grammatical errors. The first was more of a problem. Am I oversensitive? Overemotional? You know how hard it is watching someone you can easily relate to die? It's frustrating, and it hurts. [sticks her tongue out]. So there. My purpose for writing this story has been accomplished, but I'm having too much fun to end it here. ^_^ I will complete it, don't worry. 


	13. Project Destiny

****

Author's Note: _Why is this one so late? Well I'd have had it to you a few days ago (as of: 01-30-04) but my computer decided to freeze four pages into writing. I was really angry about it. _

Keeping to the story line, but slapping it in the face. I like that. Can I use that in a revised summary of the story? 

Anyway, here it is. Chapter thirteen: Project Destiny.

****

~

Chapter Thirteen

Project Destiny

~

35 Hours in; 1900 Miles Down

"Virgil you are approaching core interface." stated Talma Stickley from Deep Earth Control. "Are you good to go?"

~

"Josh?" Braz called over the coms toward the back of the ship. "Josh can you hear me?" he waited, exchanging glances with Zimsky who sat silently in his seat. "Josh, can you hear me?"

Josh had disappeared into the navigation module for some time. During then no one had contacted him, and in turn he had not said anything to them. Serge sat in his seat, looking back now and again in case Josh might come through the corridor. The silence was offsetting, but not unnerving. He might have just been caught up in some minor repairs. 

Commander Bob Iverson now sat at the head of Virgil once more, with Beck once again at his side. She'd taken advantage of the living quarters and slept for a few hours while Iverson guided them every closer to the core. 

"As ready as we'll ever be, Stick." Beck replied with a grin. At that time the soft tapping of shoes could be heard from behind the cockpit, and Josh entered with an apologetic grin on his face.

"Doctor Keyes." Iverson addressed.

"Here." he grinned.

Iverson smiled. "Deep Earth, we are green and good to go."

At that point, everyone inside braced themselves for the transition from the mantle to the inner core. The solid-liquid properties of the mantle dissolved and melted away, and Virgil digressed into a fully liquid atmosphere. The screens displayed the change for all the crew to see. Right before their eyes, the same changes occurred. The solid properties melted away, and the orange and brown shifting portrait transformed into a mass of smooth yellow and white. They had successfully made the transition. They were almost there.

Josh smiled, amazed and relieved to have made this far. Serge's chin raised to better view the transition through the screens. Iverson's head raised with pride. Beck let out a low laugh as Braz's countenance exploded into a wide grin. Zimsky sat stoically, however, braving the moments of silence with skepticism. 

Suddenly, Iverson felt a shift within the cockpit. His eyes fell to the speed readings below.

"We just got a huge speed jump here." He noted verbally to the others. "We're at ninety five knots."

"What?" Beck leaned her head over to see for herself. 

Serge frowned and looked to Josh, who's expression was similar to the Frenchman's. 

"One ten." Iverson reported.

Josh's eyes fell to his computer screen, his frown deepening. 

"One thirty. One _forty_." he sighed and shifted through some of the data readings on his screen. "Our speed's jumped because the density of the core is different than our estimates. It's lighter than we thought."

"So much for best guesses." Braz stated mockingly. Zimsky's face now contorted into a considering frown. 

"I'm fine with this." Beck stated, not realizing the dire situation they were now in. "At this rate we'll, what--reach the inner core in a little over five hours. I think we finally bought some luck."

"Braz." Came Zimsky, doing some calculations on his computer.

"Yeah."

"Would you please punch the new core density into the equations for the nuclear detonation."

Braz did just that. A few entries on the keyboard and the simulation started. A blob of green appeared on the easternmost point of the core diagram and then spread in a vast array of green lined patterns. The lines, representing the wave patterns of the explosion, reached the edge of the inner core and mantle, and refracting of the solid surroundings bounced back and forth, weaving a never ending motion through the core properties. 

"Please tell me this is enough." Josh prayed from his seat. Serge's eyes were on the two earth scientists to his right and behind. All waited in trepidation and anxiety, until a small alarm sounded from the computer speakers. 

FAILURE SCENARIO appeared over the diagram. Zimsky sighed and rested his head in defeated against the back of his seat.

"You're telling me the one thousand megatons of nuclear warheads we hauled down here isn't going to cut it?" Beck snapped. 

"No." Zimsky replied very matter-of-factly. "This core material is too thin."

"What?"

"The energy waves from the explosion won't spread far enough. They'll just bleed away into nothing."

Beck slapped the monitors in front of her. Josh let his head fall in defeat and sorrow as Braz sighed sorrowfully. Serge bit his lip, not near ready to accept failure, and Zimsky clasped his thumb and forefinger at the bridge of his nose. "That's it." he announced, shifting in his seat. "We go home." All eyes turned questioningly in his direction. "We go home." he repeated.

"Home?" Josh repeated.

"What?" came Beck.

"Our weapons control systems are gone. We don't know whether we can arm the nuclear devices-"

"We can still arm them if we-" Serge started to argue, but Zimsky cut him off.

"And our plan to fix the core no longer works. So...we have failed."

"We have _not_ failed." Josh spat.

"We have failed," Zimsky repeated as though it were simply the wrong answer to a question. "And we go home, and we go to the alternative." He turned in his seat.

"What alternative?" Braz asked with a frown. "What are you talking about?"

Zimsky was no longer listening. He pressed his headset close to his head and began to address DEC. 

"General, this is Doctor Conrad Zimsky. Destiny is a go. Repeat. Destiny is a go."

~

Purcell registered this from his position at Deep Earth Control. His head drooped slightly in stoic disappointment.

"Damn." he whispered. Slowly, he reached for a small read phone nearby, but it never left it's receiver. A large shadow came over where he sat, and Purcell looked up to see fiery brown eyes boring down into his own.

"I need to know everything to do my job." she whispered in anger. 

"You don't have to know this." Purcell argued. Stickley shifted her stance. "General, it is my job to ensure the safety of this mission. Anything that affects it is my business. Now what the hell is destiny?"

~

"It's a device." Zimsky answered to the same question almost twenty thousand feet below the surface of the earth. Standing from his seat and obtaining another portable computer from his personal shelf behind him, he continued on. "Deep Earth Trigger Seismic Initiative. DEST-INI. Destiny." Serge and Josh exchanged confused and angered looks. "We had reason to believe that our enemies were building a weapon that could generate targeted seismic events." He turned once more to his 'audience' to find that only Joshua seemed to know what he was talking about. Zimsky decided to transfer over to basic English. "They would be able to create massive earthquakes under our territory. No way of telling who did it."

"So?" Josh asked.

"So, we built one too. MAD! Mutually Assured Destruction. A perfect acronym if ever there was one."

"Beautiful." Serge and Josh stated simultaneously. 

"They built it first. I built it better." Braz shook his head and laughed in disgust as Zimsky went on. "I beamed high-powered electromagnetic waves down Deep Earth fault lines and, you know." he smiled and turned, overly pleased once again with his own genius.

"Zimsky, what makes you think Destiny would even touch the core?" Braz asked in severe doubt. 

"'Cause it already did." Came a strained, angry voice. All eyes turned to Josh who sat with a tensed jaw in his seat. His gaze turned once again toward Zimsky with a blazing fire in each eye. "This isn't a fluke. We killed the planet." 

Zimsky sat down, a hint of satisfaction in his poise.

"You keep saying the core is too big to be affected by anything short of nukes, so-"

"The core is an engine." said Josh, standing. "Throw a small wrench into a big engine, you can still stall it."

Iverson frowned and turned to face the screens once more. He sighed. "Deep Earth this is Virgil. We require clarification on the status of Project Destiny. Why weren't we notified of this?"

~

"Because you didn't need to know, Commander." Purcell answered with some air of anger in his voice.

~

Josh rolled his eyes as Braz shook his head and laughed sarcastically. "Now you may not like this. I may not like it either. But its my job..."

~

"And I do it for my country. And if we don't develop these devices someone worse will, and they will use them against us."

~

"You Americans are too damn paranoid." Serge stated quietly so that none could hear over the coms. Josh and the others laughed, all save Zimsky. 

"But you have my word.."

~

"No one in this administration--no one, had any idea that this could happen."

~

"So the device that killed the planet is your backup plan." Asked Braz.

Zimsky sat back with a frown. "An electric shock can stop a heart. It can certainly restart one. Destiny will work. It has to."

"No, it won't work!" Josh yelled. All eyes now fell with amazement to the young man who had been almost as quiet as a mouse the past thirty five hours of the mission. "If you fire that thing again with the core already stalled, it will terminally destabilize it."

"Yes, granted--there is a marginal risk involved." Zimsky agreed. "But given the circumstances, I hardly see that there's an alternative."

"Every, no, Zimsky listen to me. Every volcano on the planet will blow. There'll be earthquakes big enough to rip us to pieces."

"Doctor Keyes!" yelled Purcell from DEC.

"What?" he snapped.

~

"I'm afraid it's all we've got. Now I have orders from the President. Come home, Virgil. We go to Plan B."

~

There was silence. Josh collapsed defeated back into his chair with a sigh. The others blinked, unable to grasp that they have failed. Finally, Serge spoke up.

"What about a Plan C?"

The others turned and looked at him. Here was the one man who, with all the right in the world had no place among this crew as a family man, suggesting that they all go on toward their death, and his, in order to save a world that would never know about what they did. 

"What? What?" Braz whispered. 

"Plan C?" Josh raised his eyebrows. Iverson and Beck eyed him, intrigued. 

"Plan C." Serge repeated. "We continue on...we restart the core...somehow..." he muttered more of the minor details to the plan they had originally adopted. "We don't do it...they fire Destiny."

~

"I can't wait for you to get out of there." Purcell argued. 

~

"Then don't." Serge answered simply. "If we fail...fire Destiny."

"Oh, come on! That's ridiculous!" Zimsky spat angrily from his seat. No one paid him much mind.

"What choice do we have, Zimsky?" Josh argued in his friend's defense.

"Are you kidding me? If they set that thing off the shockwaves will wipe us out! We'll be lucky to get back if we turn back right now!"

~

"Virgil, I'm telling you right now, we will fire Destiny," Purcell went on, silently begging them to not go through with this. "And we need to do so as quickly as possible, and if you're still there, you will be destroyed."

~

There was an exchange of glances through the crew. Nervous ones, doubtful and unwilling. 

"Robert? Rebecca? Please don't make me have to do this."

~

Commander Iverson sighed and cast his gaze down, almost accusingly, at the controls before his eyes. Eventually he brought his heavy head up to face Beck. She smiled sadly and nodded her head. 

"Plan C." she smiled and turned back to observing their progress. He looked then back at the others. 

"Plan C." Braz nodded. Josh nodded with him, saying nothing. He cast his gaze to Zimsky who's own was down, his head shaking. 

Suddenly his eyes fell upon Serge. The one man who, if accepting death, would never again see his wife and children. It was lunacy, in all right they should turn back just for him. 

"Doctor Leveque, I want to inform you," he started. "You're the only one here with family back at home. If you are unwilling to follow through with this decision, you're vote will cancel out all others, and we will return home upon your request."

Serge nodded in understanding. He blew a sigh and glanced momentarily to Josh. He smiled reassuringly at his old friend and then turned back to the Commander.

"Like I said before, I am here to save my wife and my two children." he began. "If I die to do so, then I have no regrets. Plan C."

"It's your call then, Commander." Josh went on with a sad smile. Iverson nodded and turned in his seat. 

"Majority decision. We're going in." he stated firmly. "I'm sorry, sir."

~

Purcell nodded his head sadly. Without a look in either direction he left his position. No one dared to stop him.

~

"Oh, come on! You're a bunch of suicidal morons!" Zimsky hollered, flying from his seat and into the isle. His eyes blazed with a bottled fury that had been itching to get out since day one of the mission. All eyes of course went to Conrad who was growing slightly madder by the moment. "What are you, crazy? Plan C? Restart the core 'somehow'? Oh, that's a great idea!"

Josh stepped into the isle to calm him, putting forth his hand and trying to explain. But Zimsky would have none of it. 

"That's a brilliant idea!" He started to pace from the isle to the corridor and back. "I can't believe I'm stuck in this floating septic tank with you lunatics! You may have nothing to lose!" he pointed at Braz. "You may have nothing to lose." He pointed and pushed forward toward Josh. "You may have nothing to lose." he pointed at Beck. "You may have nothing to lose!" he pointed at Iverson, and then looked last to Serge. "And you seem to think you have nothing to lose. But I have my life to lose, hank you very much, while you're up! Now turn it around!" he started to gesture maniacally. "He told us to go back, and we're going back! Why? You want to be a hero? You want to be a martyr? What do you want to be? You're out of your mind! Thank you! Turn it around!" He moved forward and started to bull rush Josh, pushing him back to get at the controls as if he himself believed he had to turn Virgil around. 

"Zimsky!" Josh snarled through clenched teeth.

"I don't want to die! I don't want to die!" the crazed man went on. 

Josh held him firm for a few minutes, but eventually he couldn't keep still. Inching backward with Zimsky flailing his limbs madly, Josh started to strain every muscle in his body to keep the maddening scientist from reaching the commanders. Serge stood to help, but Braz gently brushed him aside as he launched from his seat.

There were a whole bunch of random obscenities and screams exchanged between Josh, Braz and Zimsky. Eventually the mad scientist turned on Braz. 

"You, shut up!" He spat. 

What happened after that, no one had expected, and yet at the same time they'd all been waiting for it. Braz hauled off and punched Zimsky straight in the jaw. He fell backward, unconscious and into Josh's arms. The younger of the two looked up in utter amazement, horror, and a slight humor. Serge's brow raised in silent congratulations. 

"It's not a stupid ship." he breathed, the others staring at him in wonder. "I had to." he continued, hoping that no one thought too poorly of his actions. Josh shrugged and half grinned, setting Zimsky lazily back into his seat. 

"It had to happen sometime."

"Yeah."

Braz nodded, sighed, and returned to his own, along with the others.

****

Author's Note: _Okay, there it is. Sorry this took so long again. But it's over. I'll write another one next weekend. ^_^ Take care everyone, and remember to review!_


	14. EM Tear

**__**

~

Chapter Fourteen

EM Tear

~

Deep Earth Control...

Rat's eyes gazed at the spotted map over the U.S. with trepidation. What was now occurring right before his eyes was the very last thing that he needed. 

"Oh..." he sighed.

"Status!" Stick yelled from her position on the boards. "What is that?"

"It's the EM monitoring station," Rat replied with a shaky voice. "It's the one that tracks EM pulses," his eyes fell back to the screen. "God, no."

"Just talk, Mr. Rat." stated Purcell who was watching from overhead. 

"No..."

"That's a good boy."

Rat brought his eyes up to meet the General's. 

"Remember those invisible microwaves that Josh was talking about? Well, they just found a hole." All eyes were now upon the screen where a large, black discoloration was forming over San Francisco.

__

San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge...

"No, it's a parking lot out-AHH!" screamed Jim as he spoke in his cell phone. His arm had been resting on the base of his door, the window rolled down so that he might comfortably enjoy the ocean breeze leaking in. It was rush hour, although there was very little rushing being done. Traffic was at a stand still, with little motion either way. He looked down at it now, red and blistered, slightly smoking. Something was wrong. This wasn't a sunburn, not like he'd usually received in his younger years. This was different. He didn't know what. Believing it a good idea, he rolled up his window, then cradled his injured arm. 

The metal cables, wires, and bands around him started to sparkle and melt in the sunlight around him. Cables snapped, causing him to duck down in his seat.

"Oh, my God." he whispered as he observed this event unfold. The glass window at his side cracked as the heat around them grew. His car shuddered, and began to move forward as the tires exploded beneath him. He looked down to see the asphalt that covered the bridge. It was melting! 

Then the large metal bars above his head began to fall. Jim watched as they hurtled toward him. In an instant, he was crushed within his car. His death was perhaps the least painful of those who were still residing on Golden Gate. 

Sections of the Bridge, with their connectors now melted, began to fall away from the main line of the bridge. All the cars that were left on them were hurtled into the ocean, where there was no escape from the boiling water beneath. Cars burst into flames as they fell. Men yelled out as women shrieked and children cried. It was pure and utter devastation, and those on the coasts watched helplessly as strangers and friends perished in the havoc. 

__

Deep Earth Control Center...

"And now with this horrific, breaking news. We go live to San Francisco, where Leo Jacks has the story."

"Yes, Claire, it's hard to believe that half of San Francisco is in ruins today, following the most devastating and the most baffling event in our nation's history. "I, it's-it's a horrific situation here. Thousands are dead. Many are missing. It's-it's hotels, hospitals."

"Bring up the power grid." Commanded Purcell. Rat did so on the main screen. A picture came up with the title "United States Power Grid." Washington, Wyoming, California, and Nevada all blinked in red.   
"The whole West Coast is out." he stated with a defeated sigh. "That means we're going to have to suck up just about every drop of juice east of the Rockies to fire Destiny. Another EM spike, we're not going to have enough power."

Purcell started to move away, but Stickley caught up with him.

"General, you have got to give them more time."

"There is no more time." he spat. "Colonel, call Destiny."

"I am launching a formal complaint against you with the Department of Defense."

She followed Purcell outside.

"Rat to Josh." he spoke, knowing that no one else cared what he was doing.

__

Virgil

"Go, Rat" Announced Doctor Joshua Keyes from his seat. Serge looked over, smiled, shook his head, and went back to work.

"Hey, um..."

~

"Here's the EM Field data that you're _primed_ for."

~

Serge's brow furrowed in confusion. Josh, however, merely nodded his head. He unbuckled his seat harness as he spoke.

"Digging that, Rat." 

Josh left his seat and moved out of the cockpit. Serge's eyes followed him. 

Josh made his way into the navigation compartment.

"Primed for. Primed for." He skipped through the station and sat himself at another computer. "Prime numbers--" he sat down and began typing into the text boxes.

Adjust image size: 

"One."

Re-calculated Gamma: 

"Two."

Adjusted Contrast: 

"Three."

Adjusted Hue: 

"Five"

Adjusted YIQ: 

"Seven"

In Phase Chrominace: 

"Eleven"

Quadrature Chrominace: 

"Thirteen."

Adjusted Luminace: 

"Seventeen".

Immediately he had a small map of the world as he knew it. But as he watched the colors started to shift, and finally the last image brought a decoded message from Rat.

__

Destiny sounds bad. Can I help?

~

Rat sat behind his numerous screens, scratching his nose as his computer decoded a response. 

__

We need time. Find Destiny. Slow it down!

Immediately Rat got to work. He brought up all his other screens and started a worldwide net search for Project Destiny. It took a fraction of a second. 

"Here we go." he smiled and nodded his head. 

__

Project Destiny Base--Alaska

A telephone rang in the impeccable office overlooking one of the United State's most ingenious inventions. 

"James." announced an accented voice. 

An elderly man turned form the window and ran over to answer it. 

"Yes, sir." he answered with some stiffness in his voice. "Yes, sir." he hung up the phone. "Here we go folks."


	15. Plan D

**__**

~

Chapter Fifteen

Plan D

~

Zimsky yawned and stretched his mouth and throat. Beads of sweat were beginning to roll off of his face and neck, as were they with the others. Josh and Braz were sitting at one of the computers. All were in the navigation compartment, save Beck and Iverson. Iverson was now resting as Beck took over navigation of Virgil for the next handful of hours. 

"Okay, this time it's going to work." Josh whispered as they wrote the new equations into the simulator. 

"Here you go....beautiful." Braz agreed. 

"Yeah, mm-hmm." Josh nodded, watching the screen. "Come on, baby. Come on, daddy wants to see the sky again."

SCENARIO FAILURE followed by the annoying little buzz that mocked them so severely. Josh let his head fall, sighing and trying to think of another plan. 

"Okay, okay, okay. Let's try again." He stated. Braz rubbed his head tiredly. "Your torque is R cross F..."

"No, your R is too small, Josh."

Zimsky circled around them. Serge sat behind the duo, observing their progress, here to lend support and mathematical assistance where it was needed, even though geomagnetics and engineering were not his all time specialty. 

"Right." Josh pointed at him with a dawning expression of mock realization. Zimsky was laughing behind them.

"Wait, hold on." Braz stated. "What are you laughing at?" he snapped.

"No, I mean, it took me and four hundred of the world's smartest people to come up with the first plan." he argued. 

"You want to help?" Josh asked.

"No." Zimsky answered firmly. "I want to turn around and go home."

"It's not going to happen." Braz stated.

"Well then we're going to die." Josh turned and glared at him. Zimsky shrugged. "True."

"All right. Let's start from square one. Let's start from square one." Josh turned back to Braz. 

"Okay." Braz nodded. 

"The bulk modules--depends on density. Your torque, is R cross F, but you have to integrate volume."

"But, here, here...just consider this." Serge added in, leaning forward in his chair. 

Zimsky was pacing behind the trio, his own plan formulating an idea as he did so. The words of the others were lost for a few moments as he contemplated his idea.

"Now, we got this..." Braz commented. 

"Okay, now, R cross F, we're putting in Pi, what's V?" Josh asked.

"Oh, for God's sake." Zimsky spat. Braz stood up and spat.

"All right. I'm hitting him again." 

"No, no, no. Braz no, look, I have a theory." Zimsky pleaded, running behind the centered cage of the room that blocked off the more dangerous components in the compartment. "Are you interested?"

"Yes. We're interested!" Josh sighed in exasperation. 

Zimsky poked his head over onto the other side of the cage.

"Then let me smoke a cigarette and I'll tell you."

~

Zimsky lit his cigarette and took one long inhaling breath of a Marlboro. 

Oh, thank God." He sighed as if in ecstasy. Josh, Serge, and Braz eyed him expectantly until at last Zimsky became aware of their presence again. 

"Hmm? All right, fine, look." he stuck the cigarette in his mouth and started programming coordinates and equations into his computer. "Look, we have to use wave interference, okay? Because one explosion won't do it. Think about stones in a pond. You drop a large stone into a pond, you get a big splash, and then that's it, it's over. But, drop a smaller stone," the screen began to demonstrate this, "wait until the ripples weaken, then drop another, and another, and another, and...fluid dynamics 101. The ripples reinforce themselves in geometric progression."

"Hm, the whole bigger than the sum of the parts." Braz observed. "Then we'll have five two hundred megaton explosions..."

"Instead of one big bang." Zimsky wrapped it up, nodding his head.

"So," Josh started. All eyes turned to him without his realizing it. "We hot wire the nukes."

"Yes." Serge nodded.

"As one does, we seed them through the core...at locations that have to be accurate by the inch. We detonate them in a sequence that has to be accurate to the millisecond...then we outrun the biggest nuclear shock wave in history."

"Right." Zimsky responded with a stressed tone.

"Yeah." Braz answered shakily, his expression holding a thought that summed up his thoughts on this plan quite well.

Serge simply nodded his head with mock eagerness and readiness, his lips pursed in thoughtfulness as his eyes gazed into the floor dreamily. 

"I mean, that should he fairly simple." Josh finished with mock confidence. 

~

__

Project Destiny Base--Alaska

The walkway retracted as the warning siren sounded through the base. Destiny was charging up to make her debut into the Earth's core. Those in the observation station prepared themselves for the moment they had all been waiting for.

"Destiny should now be diverting to the central." came one board specialist. There were a number of other different readings being announced as Destiny reached her full potential in power. Switches were armed, buttons were pressed, and history was being made. They believed.

"Final calibration-"

"-on both transmission systems..."

~

__

Deep Earth Control Center

Rat was still swimming through the intranet data sites for a link to Project Destiny. But every time he got close the same window would pop up. 404 Error, Access Denied. 

"Come on," he hissed, chewing a Hot Pocket as he went from screen to screen, desperately trying to get somewhere with his search. 

~

__

Virgil

"Cut the rouge...the red wire above the circuit." Josh read from Serge's notebook. Braz was working on one bomb as Serge worked on another. Josh was here for morale support and French translation, since that was what most of Serge's book was written in. 

"Okay. Okay." Braz went. 

"Wait!" Serge yelled. "Below...not above!"

Josh frowned and squeezed his eyes closer together. This light was no good for reading. "No, no, wait! Hold it." Josh yelled. Braz hadn't heard Serge and was beginning to cut. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, cut it below."

Braz's head fell back onto the floor, exhausted and happy that he wasn't the one responsible for killing them all.

~

__

Deep Earth Control

Rat was still not having any luck as he hacked into every thing and anything he could find on the net. His frustration was bringing him to the point of tears. His face tensed up in stress and irritation. 

"Please," he begged.

Purcell waited in his office, letting his fingers dance idly as he waited for the signal to come in that Destiny had been fired. 

~

__

Alaska

"Extensions A, B." Jean announced from his position on the board. "Here we go. F, check." The power columns on Destiny grew in frequency and strength. "Increase power to reactors ten through fifteen."

"We're almost there, folks." James announced through is com.

~

__

Deep Earth Control

Rat was failing miserably. Every site was a dead end. He couldn't get so much as a scrap of a direction to head to after this. He was pushing himself against a dead end, and Rat knew it. Tears began to fall now at last onto his paled and frustrated face. 

__

~

Virgil

46 Hours in, 2600 Miles down

"Okay guys, we're closing on the inner core." Beck announced as Braz, Josh, Serge and Zimsky marched through the corridor and into the cockpit. Iverson was in his seat now, looking tired but ready to go.

"The nukes are ready. Timers are on." Josh stated. Braz went to his seat and started to work on his computer.

"Great. Let's start dropping them." Iverson came in.

"No." Zimsky argued. "The bombs are not built for these pressures. That's why they were in that pod. If you send them out now, out of that casing they'll be crushed instantly."

"Oh that's wonderful." Beck stated.

"I'm assuming we have a plan D." Iverson continued. Josh nodded.

"Plan D is Virgil's compartments. We put a nuke in each section of Virgil, and then eject the individual sections one at a time. They should stay in tact long enough for the nukes to go off."

Serge's gaze turned to Brazzelton, who was shaking his head.

"What?" he asked.

"Virgil's not designed to eject undamaged compartments." he informed them.

~

A long 'map' of Virgil's inner setup was displayed across one of the many computer screens in the cockpit area. It showed the hydraulic gear pump, piston, and the locks for the separate compartments.

"Okay, these are the ejection mechanisms holding each compartment in place." he stated. The red line running beneath the compartments and into the attachment locks went green as he spoke. "They're all connected by one master hydraulic gear. Kind of like keys on a key ring." he turned to the others who nodded. "What we have to do, we have to unlock the piston. That will release the compartments so the bombs can be jettisoned."

"Where's the master gear?" Zimsky asked, raising his head. Serge held a questioning expression on his face. Braz sighed, a harbinger of more bad news.

"In the crawl space we used to get out earlier." 

"What?" Serge breathed.

"Well, what the hell is it doing there?" Zimsky spat.

"I built the ship in three damn months. I didn't think I'd be intentionally sabotaging it. I'm sorry!" he laughed roughly. 

"So one of us has to go in there." Josh stated. Zimsky rubbed his temples, not believing what he was hearing. 

"Correct."

"Into the crawlspace that has core fluid at nine thousand degrees." Beck laughed in mock humor.

"Yes." Braz answered matter-of-factly.

"Can you flush it with liquid nitrogen?" Josh asked.

"We don't have enough at this point."

"Nine thousand degrees?" Zimsky came in. "And our suits are built to withstand...?"

"Half that. Probably."

"Right. Half that." Zimsky nodded his head as if he believed he should have known that answer. 

"So what you're saying is that, whoever goes into that crawlspace isn't coming back?"

Serge looked up with some trepidation. He didn't like the idea any more than anyone else. The problem was, who were they going to chose?

**__**

Author's Note: This freaking sucks. My computer is working against me. My disk drive is full of dust so it isn't reading my disks correctly, meaning that I've probably lost all my chapters for the sequel of this story and the next chapter. Also, and for reasons I can't understand, my pause button has ceased to perform so I can no longer pause the damn DVD as easily as I could before. MY COMPUTER IS WORKING AGAINST ME!!! WHY!?!?!?! [breaks down into a sobbing mass] 

*sniff* Please review.


	16. Worth Dying For

**__**

Author's Note: Okay, well the disk drive error has been fixed. I don't know about the pause button, but the greater of the two problems has been fixed. YAY! [dances] Enjoy.

****

~

Chapter Sixteen

Worth Dying For

~

Braz held six straws for each of the six crew members. No one wanted to include Beck on this, but she had insisted, and no one doubted that she was capable. 

The autopilot was steering the ship for now, but sooner or later either Iverson or Beck (or both if neither of them picked the shortest straw) would be back in their seats conducting Virgil in its motions. All started suspiciously at the straws as though they were plotting against the crew. That it would be through these inanimate objects, and not fate or change, that their own ends would be decided.

"Hmm." Zimsky was supposed to pick first. He stood for some time, contemplating his decision. Serge was rolling his eyes. Just pick a straw, he thought. 

"Together." Josh stated. The others nodded. That was the best way to do it.

"Yes, thank you." He nodded his head and rubbed his chin fearfully. "Wait." Josh placed his fingers on a straw. Zimsky's hand trailed every which way save towards the straws. Everyone else had theirs lined up and ready for the taking, save him. 

"On three." Josh went on.

"Okay."

"One...two...three." Josh pulled his. Everyone else took their own, and Zimsky moved last for his. Braz was left standing with the last choice. No one dared to look at their straw just yet. Glances and glares were exchanged, as well as apologetic grins and nervous sighs. Finally, everyone brought up their own straw. It was strange. Josh was certain that they had an agreement that all the straws were cut in different lengths. If the one person who drew the shortest straw had a good reason to not die for this expedition (this rule had been added mainly if Serge had drawn the shortest straw) then they would not have to go, and the job would therefore pass to the person with the second shortest straw.

Braz held up his hand with the others. Josh noted, as well as those nearest, that he held the shortest straw.

"Huh." he stated with some wonder. All eyes went nervously, and guiltily, toward him. Braz did not bring his eyes up to meet those around him. "Well, I better go on, get myself ready."

"No, Braz, wait." Zimsky protested, following after him quickly. Josh eyed his straw awkwardly, took Serge's, and compared the lengths. He then took everyone else's and compared their lengths. "No, Braz, no wait. Excuse me." he grabbed Braz's hand. "Just a moment. May I see this?" 

"No!" Braz yelled, fighting Zimsky off, but it was too late. Zimsky had his straw.

"May I?" he asked mockingly after.

"Yes." Braz smiled angrily.

"Thank you." he displayed Braz's straw, folded over. 

"Magic." Josh exclaimed in mock fascination.

"I mean Braz, come on." Zimsky went on, sounding pleased with himself. "Six straws of equal length. This is childish. Let' s do it again."

"No, we will not do it again." Braz leaned against one of the bunks in the living area. "I thought you'd be happy."

"No. Not at the expense of you making us look like fools."

Josh turned his face to Braz, frowning. 

"He's right. Why do you get dibs on being the hero?"

Serge and Beck frowned.

"Because it's my damn ship." Braz argued forcefully.

"Oh that makes perfect sense." Zimsky snapped.

"Look, for twenty damn years I've done nothing but Virgil. Twenty years. Virgil belongs to me, and I will not let her fail. I will not. Now, if you want to know what's worth dying for--this ship. Building it, instead of imagining it. If Virgil needs blood, it will be my blood."

"That was very inspirational, Doctor Brazzelton." Serge stated, rocking his torso as he pumped his right arm up and down. "I'm sure who ever is walking through that crawl space in the next ten minutes will remember yours words." Everyone turned a questioning, frowning eye toward Serge. His expression did not change. "Now, if you please, we are picking straws again."

"No, I-"

"We're drawing lots." Josh stated very matter-of-factly. 

"Bull shit." Braz fumed, stepping threateningly up toward Josh so that they were nose to nose almost. "I'm going and-"

"You're not going."

"I'm going-"

"You are _not_ going. Not like this. We're picking fair and square." Braz's eye twitched, and Josh, along with the others, believed that he would be Braz's next punching bag. But he stepped back, sighing and nodding. 

"Very well." he grumbled. 

~

Josh held the straws this time. Each of them had been cut by Zimsky in the arrangement they had previously agreed on. 

"On three." Josh went again. Everyone nodded firmly. "One...two...three." Everyone drew. "All right, everyone?" All nodded once more. Then, in a fraction of a second, all measured their straws. Iverson compared his to Beck's and sighed in relief that at least she was not going. Iverson, comparing his to Serge's found that he too was not going. Beck embraced him happily. Serge smiled as he saw Zimsky's own straw was shorter than his own. Braz and Josh compared their own quietly in the corner. 

"Well?" Zimsky asked Braz with a grin. "Did you get what you wanted? Edward?" 

Braz and Josh exchanged glances, then eyed the others. Josh had a hesitance in his eyes, where Braz only looked sorry and disappointed. The few number of grins that were on the faces of the crew died immediately.

"Well?" Serge asked. 

Josh held up his straw, not meeting anyone's eyes. Of all the regretful expressions, Serge's, he knew, would be the most painful to meet.

~

Joshua Keyes stood in the living quarters, fully suited save for one connection wire in back that he could never reach. _The simplest things are always the hardest._ He heard Iverson say in his mind over and over again. How true that was.

Suddenly, he heard something louder than their Commander's voice. The hiss of the door opening reached his ears, and Josh turned to see a frowning Serge staring back at him. 

"Need some help?" he asked heavily. 

"Ha. Always." Josh laughed. Serge didn't even break a ghost of a smile on his heavy features. He walked behind Joshua and connected the last bit of the suit. Their microphones had been turned off, unknowingly to them, to allow for some privacy. When Serge had left the cockpit, the four others left behind knew exactly where he was headed. 

There was some silence as Josh adjusted his collar and turned to face his dear friend. He smiled lightly, and as casually as possible.

"All right. Well, as ready as I'll ever be I guess." he stated in a whispering laugh. Josh knew that Serge was upset, but he wanted desperately to see the old man smile before he died. It would be a nice memory to fall into oblivion with. A friend smiling in the face of great tragedy. For some reason, Josh believed that that would give him strength. Josh was pretty sure he would never get to have his wish.

"You don't have to do this." Serge stated sternly, as though he were dealing with a juvenile delinquent. He roughly straightened some of the features on the suit, taking out his angst physically on the specimen. 

"I know." Josh stated boldly, but hollowly. He was young. He didn't want to die, but fate, or God, had deemed it his place to do so for the greater good of the world. 

"Then why are you?" Serge asked, his frown deepening. "Why are you throwing your life away?"

"We need this done." Josh argued.

"Brazzelton was willing to go."

"It isn't Braz's place."

"But it's yours?" Serge's voice broke noticeably, but he tried to cover it up with a cough. Josh winced, the emotional pain this was sending both of them through was excruciating, and it seemed to reverberate off of the metal walls around them. 

"Serge.." Josh sighed, moving forward. 

"No!" he put up his hands. His eyes were tearing, but not willing to let go just yet. "You risked your life to save me from a death that I could not have saved myself from. Now here you stand, asking me to accept yours when even you cannot accept it?"

"Serge...please," Josh inched forward. Serge set himself on the lowest bunk near him and sighed, running his hands through his already messy hair. Josh, awkwardly large in his suit, could not sit next to him, so instead kneeled at his side. He felt so much like a little kid, trying to explain a horrific deed done to a heartbroken parent. For all it was worth, if it would make Serge happy, Josh would throw off this suit immediately and embrace him for comfort and care. But that wasn't an option for the geophysicist, and the atomic specialist knew that as well. But it still hurt. For both of them. It hurt Serge to watch his young friend die, and it hurt Josh to watch the pain the Frenchman was going through. "If it were you...you'd do the exact same thing." he stated in a light whisper. 

Serge sniffed, raising his head with an indignant laugh. 

"Yeah, maybe."

"Of course," Josh grinned. "I'd be doing exactly what you were doing now." he added. Serge smiled, then chuckled. Josh finally felt a great deal of weight lift from his heart, and he fell back against the wall with a laugh and relief.

"What?" Serge smiled.

"That's what I was waiting for." Serge raised a questioning eyebrow. "I told myself, I wasn't going anywhere until I could make you smile." 

There was an awe-like silence, until again Serge smiled. This time it was a sad, regretful grin, but a smile nonetheless. 

"Why would you want me to smile?"

Josh frowned, not angry or confused, but suddenly realizing that he did not understand why he had wanted to see Serge smile. There was no real, logical explanation for it. Maybe because a smile, to him, meant the old man's approval, or that there was a sign that even in all of this trauma and sadness, Serge still had the strength and heart for some shred of happiness. 

"I don't know." he answered with a stupid smile. Serge laughed. 

At once, they both stood and nodded. A tacit understanding stood between them. There was no going back. Josh went out first with Serge following after. It took all of his will to keep him from collapsing in realization of what he was losing.

~

"Okay Beck, open the door." Josh stated. He jumped up and down a bit, trying desperately to loosen the nerves in his system. It didn't do a damn thing for him. His heart beat rapidly and his joints shook like an earthquake had hit them. It was all Josh could do to keep from throwing up. He was going to walk in there, and he would not be walking out. 

"Door releasing." she whispered into the com. It slid open slowly, and yet too quick for Josh to readily handle the blast of heat that came straight for him. Some sort of guttural moan ejaculated from his mouth, but he couldn't decipher if it was out of pain or shock. He could feel the hair on his body begin to burn off; could feel the first few layers of his skin blister, crack, and peel beneath the unobtainium blend suit. "Josh?" He heard Beck cry meekly. 

"All-right." he responded stiffly. He'd brought a hammer with him to help eject the lever in the crawlspace, to release the main hydraulic gear, but found it would be of no help. The hammer melted in his hand, through the glove and bit into his skin. Letting go wasn't an option. Josh cried out and shook his arm as fast as was physically possible for him, until it dropped and melted with the ground. 

His progress was slow. The chamber seemed longer than Braz had told him it would be. The protective plastic-metal-unobtainium blend on his feet was now melting to the chamber floor. The light in his helmet burnt out half way through, and Josh figured that he was as good as burnt out in the next few moments too. Would he have been listening, he'd have heard Beck's voice: "Come on, Josh. Come on."

Serge sat in his seat, biting his knuckles painfully. His face was white and his nerves strained to their max. He could barely sit there as they all listened to Josh's final steps, final words, final breaths, without so much as blinking. How could they be so cold? So hard? So unmoved? Josh was a young man. Most of them here were old, with the exception of Beck. The prime light of their days had long since passed. Why was it Josh who had to go and fight for their survival? Why did Josh have to give up everything? 

There was suddenly and abruptly heard through the chamber cockpit a hiss, and then the release of a great amount of pressure. 

"He did it." Braz barked a brittle laugh. "You did it, Josh." he stated through the com.

"Open the propellers, Beck." Josh stated roughly through the com. 

"Josh?" her brow furrowed and a frown came to her face. 

"Open the propellers." he commanded once more. Beck looked to Iverson. He nodded the go ahead.

"NO!" Serge screamed at last from his seat, standing and pushing through Braz and Zimsky. 

"Serge, we can't leave him in there-" Iverson began to argue

"Then wait. I'll go get him."

"You're insane!" Zimsky argued immediately. "You'd never make it past the door. It's a miracle Josh has."

"Joshua!" Serge hollered over the com. "Joshua. Joshua can you here me?"

"Hey Serge. Beck opening the propeller door?"

"Not if I can help it." 

The man in the crawlspace started to laugh. "What are you doing leaving me down here then?"

"I'm coming to get you."

He walked off. Braz and Zimsky followed. 

"He's not serious." Josh gasped through his com.

"Braz will stop him, Josh. We won't let him go in."

"Good."

"Josh?"

"Yeah Beck."

"Your vitals are dropping, but you've got time. You _can_ get out of there."

"No Beck. No."

"Do it Josh." she ordered. "Do it for Serge."

There was silence for some time. Finally, a defeated sigh. "I'll try."

~

"Get off of me!" Serge protested. Braz pulled the Frenchman back as Zimsky ripped the suite out of his hands. "No! Joshua!"

"There's nothing you can do for him, Serge!" Braz fought him. For someone the same age as Braz, he was remarkably strong. Or perhaps the possible threat of losing Josh had simply strengthened his resolve. "It's over."

"NO!" Serge yelled. He wasn't even reaching for the suit anymore. He dove for the crawlspace opening and started to pull it back.

"You're freaking insane!" Zimsky screamed, pulling him back. "What? You're going to go in there with no protection? That's smart, yeah, and you'll fry up in a millisecond!"

"I don't care!" Serge fought to open it again. Braz pulled him back as Zimsky pushed him away. The result ended with all three smashed against a wall. "JOSHUA!" Without warning Serge began to curse at them in his own tongue. "Non, dieu le condamne! L'arrêter bâtards! JOSHUA! Je ne le partirai lui."

There was another defined hiss, and then a soft, lulling hum. 

"The propellers." Braz whispered. Serge fought against them both now, violently. 

"SORTIR DE MAN SENTIER!! JOSHUA!!!" 

"Serge it's over!" Zimsky snarled. "It's done."

"No!" Serge pulled himself from them and tried to tear open the door. But his fingers trembled too badly, and his eyes were too over flown with tears to see what he was doing. Braz sighed sadly. They'd lost a valuable team member, that was for sure. But Serge had lost a dear friend, a son figure. That was more pain than Braz believed should be endurable by any man. Kneeling somberly beside the weeping Frenchman, he placed his hands comfortingly atop Serge's shoulders. He could still hear Serge muttering blindly through the metal door. "No. No. Joshua, no."

"Serge?" Braz whispered gently. "Serge, come on. Let's go back to the cockpit."

"Condamner tout! To hell with you!" Serge snarled. Braz sighed. 

"You don't mean that." 

"To hell with all of you! To hell with this mission and the world!"

"I think we're already there." Zimsky laughed. Braz shot him a bitter glare, then turned back to Serge. 

"All right, Serge." he sighed, then stood. "I'm going to wait over here. Zimsky is going to go back. When you're ready to leave, let me know."

"Just leave me here!" Serge hissed. 

"I can't do that Serge."

The bloodshot eyes looked at Braz with questioning "Why not?"

"Cause you'll try and go down there, and with hot molten magma running through that walkway now it'll spill into the ship."

"I won't go in." Serge promised. Zimsky walked out, leaving the two old men to their talk. Braz was just about to leave when Beck came in over his com.

"Braz, you have to hear this!"

'Put it over the com, Beck."

He heard beeping. Like the beating of a heart monitor. "What is this, Beck?"

"Josh. I-he may have made it through the crawlspace. His vital signs never stopped reading!"

"Beck, that's impossible. No one could survive that."

"Check. That heart beat is unmistakable."

Braz sighed. "Very well." He turned to Serge. "Could you...excuse me?"

"What, _you're_ going down there?"

"I need to check something is all." Serge wiped tears from his eyes with a shaking hand and moved out of the way grudgingly. "I'll be back." he confirmed. Serge nodded, not meeting the scientist's eyes. 

Braz went swiftly down the ladder and into the small chamber. He could still smell the burning magma in the chamber to his left. The room was slightly larger than he remembered, but even at a glance he could tell there was no sign of Josh.

"Beck, he's not down here." Braz confirmed. 

"Never mind Braz." she whispered. "It stopped."

He nodded. Tears began to form in his own eyes, surprisingly. He'd never gotten exceptionally close with Josh, but the kid had grown on him over the few days they'd been journeying toward hell.

"I'm sorry, Beck."

Serge was upstairs listening to this conversation over his own com. The tears came back to his eyes. He pressed hard up against the wall. With one last surge of anger at himself, he slammed his head into the metal wall behind him. Surprisingly, he didn't feel much of it. At last, with nothing left for him, he rested his forehead in the palm of his hand. His fingers clenched like metal over his hair, and without warning he began weeping like a child.

Braz in the lower level heard the clang of Serge's skull against metal and sighed. He felt like doing very much the same thing. With a sigh he turned to go up the ladder, but a blistered hand grasped his arm. Braz's heart fell to his feet and then landed in his stomach. He peered up and looked into the blackened eyes of Josh. 

"Help me..." the young scientist pleaded before collapsing to the ground. Braz stood in shock for a moment before screaming through his com.

"BECK! BECK! I NEED HELP!"

"All right Braz, help is on the way!" she confirmed, yelling back in a state of panic.

Serge's face popped into the opening overhead almost instantly to see what was wrong. "Brazzleton, what is it?" But he didn't need telling. Josh's shattered form on the floor was all the convincing and motivation he needed. Sliding down the ladder, Serge went to work in trying to revive the young man. "Joshua?"

"Mm-hmm." Josh muttered. His face was blistered and peeling, but he was still recognizable. The suit, still on him save for the gloves and mask, was melted and cracked in numerous places. 

"Joshua, can you hear me?"

"Serge...?"

"That's right." he ran his fingers though Josh's hair. 

"Did it work?"

"Yeah." Serge nodded and brushed away a few tears. "You did it Joshua. You got it."

Josh smiled, then closed his bloodshot eyes to fall into a deep sleep. He didn't know if he'd wake up. He wasn't sure if he cared. He'd done what was necessary, nothing else mattered. Serge watched as Josh finally started to let go. Panic filled his heart. "C'mon Joshua, you're going to make it." he encouraged. 

Commander Bob Iverson slid down the ladder at that time, brandishing the first aid kit. One look at Josh and he tossed it aside. "Well hell, this isn't going to do him any good. Can one of you help carry him up the ladder?"

"I can." Both Braz and Serge offered simultaneously. Iverson sighed. "All right, you two go up first. In case something happens I'll stay down here to catch him." They both nodded. Serge took Josh's shoulders and began to haul him up the ladder. Zimsky was waiting above him to assist where he was needed. Braz followed, with Iverson overseeing their progress. 

"We've got him, Beck." Iverson stated over the com. "He's going to need all the medical help we can get, so as soon as I get in there bolt to the medical pod, all right?"

"Got it, Bob." she confirmed. 

Serge broke through the opening looking, if possible, worse than when he had been throwing his fit moments ago. 

"Serge he's-" Braz began.

"I know." The Frenchman replied and went to work using CPR. "Damn it Joshua, you're not getting away this easily."

"Serge, that won't work." Zimsky protested. "Get him to the medical pod!" Iverson flew from the crawlspace and started yelling for Beck through his com. 

"We don't have time to wait Beck, he's not breathing now. BRAZ! Get him to the medical pod, Beck will take care of him there."

"Roger that. C'mon Serge, hurry!" He placed his hands beneath Josh's knees, and Serge took the man up beneath his arms again. Together they made their way to the medical pod where Beck was already waiting, frantically putting together supplies and injections. 

"Remove the suit and his shirt." she instructed. 

Serge and Braz immediately got to removing the suite. It was ruined, they could both tell. Braz took a pair of metal cutters and hacked away at the limb coverings.

"What are you doing?" Serge frowned. 

"The damn thing is ruined. Get it off any way possible." grunted the man. Serge looked up and around for another pair. Beck handed one to him and he immediately got to working on peeling off the suite as Beck started feeding Josh oxygen.

When the suite was gone, Braz went to remove his shirt. He rolled Josh on his back and sighed sadly.

"I don't know if we can remove this." Braz commented, looking over Josh's arms and back. 

"What's wrong?" Beck pushed in between him and their patient. "Oh my God..."

"What is it?" Serge asked, moving toward them swiftly.

"His shirt has...melted into his skin!"

Each looked in turn at the injury, save for Zimsky who claimed to have a sensitive stomach on such issues. He did, however, have his own comments. "Cotton doesn't melt, what are you talking about?"

"Well human flesh can, in a sense." Braz argued. "Not in a sense like ice more like...candle wax only not so extreme. Josh's shirt has...sort of fused with his skin in the heat of the crawlspace and..."

"There could be a plethora of internal injuries." Beck stated, shaking her head. "I mean...no one knows what such intense heat can do to someone, at those temperatures, and that's if he survives the night."

Serge nodded his head. "Do what you can, Beck."

She smiled briefly. "I'll try. You boys go get some rest."

"I'll stay and help." Serge stated. It wasn't an offer, and giving the events of the past fifteen minutes, no one was going to even dare try rip Serge from Josh's side. 

"All right, Serge." Beck smiled sadly. "You can just sit there if you like-"

"What do you need?"

"I need you to calm down." she smiled. "Just-just sit there. If he starts to gain consciousness see if you can talk him awake. He'll respond to you."

Serge nodded. "All right."

Braz sighed. Using a handkerchief he wiped the sweat from his brow. "I'm going to go take a seat in the cockpit." he notified the others. Zimsky nodded. 

"Think I'll join you."

Braz nodded, and the two of them headed out. Beck got to work injecting Josh with liquids and revitalizing proteins. After inspecting his burns she pulled some bandage wrap from a cupboard and started working on his arms. "At this rate he's going to look like a mummy." she laughed. Serge never said a word. His eyes never left Josh's face. Beck, seeing the concern, realized that she had to distract him otherwise he might lose his nerve completely. 

"So...how-how long have you...know Josh?"

Serge looked up. His expression was sincere, but the concern never left his eyes. "I'm sorry?"

"How long have you known Josh?"

"Ah..." he sighed, smiling lightly as his mind drifted back into old memories. "I first knew his father before I knew Joshua." he stated. Beck listened intently, still doing some checks here and there. "His father was a weapons specialist. He comes to work one day, and it's 'bring your child to work day' at Joshua's school. So naturally Joshua had come in. He was just a skinny little blonde haired boy with dark eyes. But he had a happiness to him that I had never seen in a child before. Joshua was introduced to me, and I was happy to meet him. 

'Hello' I says to him, and I shake his hand. He looks me in the eye and he says...he says, 'You're Dr. Leveque?'. I say 'Yes, I am. Has your father been telling you nasty things about me?'" Serge laughed. "He says 'No. Quite the...quite the contrary. He says you're the best in your field.' I says 'Well perhaps. That's what they say. They don't know too much though.'" Serge smiled. Tears unmistakably made their way to his eyes again. He did all he could to wipe them away. "So a few years later I'm a special guest in a freshman thermal-physics classroom at a University somewhere - I don't remember where - but I walk in and there's that skinny little boy with the blonde hair and dark eyes at the front of the room. He's looking..." Serge started to laugh again. "He's looking bored as hell, he may have been sleeping for all I know! I come down the steps and I pat his shoulder and I says 'Hey, you're Keyes' boy?'. He goes 'Yeah. You remembered me.' He sounded absolutely amazed. I say 'Yeah of course.' and I was early so we started talking for a while. After my presentation we went out to lunch together and Josh paid for it cause I'd left my wallet at my hotel room. I swore I would pay him back and he told me not to worry about it. He asked me how long I was staying. 'I'm leaving for France in a week.' I told him. 'My daughter is having her birthday soon.'. 'How old is she?' he asked. 'Turning four.' I said. 'Has a fascination with anything that has butterflies on it.' Joshua laughed at me. It wouldn't be the first time. 'Sticking around for a while?' he asked. I nodded. 'I'll show you around if you like?' I smiled. 'I'd like that.' I answered. I'd not been expecting to make any friends, and I hated teaching kids really, but Josh hit me differently. 

A week later I was running to the airport. Josh gave me a ride. Told me cab drivers weren't trustworthy and this way he didn't have to pay for an un-enjoyable trip. I could get one for free." Serge laughed once more. "I'm running to the plane and Josh is carrying some of my bags for me and I turn to him and I say, after we reach the gate and my luggage is loaded, I say 'I don't think I can repay you for all of your kindness.' 'Don't worry about it.' he tells me and smiles. I loved his smile. It was so sincere. 'Oh one more thing.' he says, pulling something out of his pocket. 'For Chantel.' and he hands me a small box with butterfly wrapping paper on it." 

Beck cocked her head in admiration of the story, and the thoughtfulness of this man who was now completely entrusted in her care. 

"'I cannot except this.' I protested. 'Well you'd better.' Josh laughed, stuffing it in my hand. 'I don't have a girlfriend to give it to, and I don't think you'd like it.'" Serge laughed. 

"What was it?" Beck asked.

Serge sighed, his eyes looking fondly down at the floor. 

"Chantel didn't do a thing to tear up the paper. She made me cut it carefully so it didn't rip. When she opened it, she pranced around singing 'Butterfly! Butterfly!' through the house. It was a little necklace. Silver chain, and at the center was a little butterfly with glitter and golden lining."

Beck smiled. Serge laughed fondly at the memory. "It was probably the best gift she'd ever gotten." He looked at Josh's still form. "She still wears it. Four years later and she still wears it."

"He's a good man." Beck stated. Serge nodded his head in agreement.

"He is."

There was a bout of silence in which each flashed back on the past day. None of them thought they'd be here. With a sigh and a sweep of her brow, Beck glanced up at the Frenchman. 

"Go get some rest, Serge. I'll call you if there's any change."

He nodded his head. "All right." he headed out the door, leaving Beck alone. 

Not a few moments later, his head had popped back into the doorway. "You'll call me?"

"Yes, Serge." she laughed in annoyance. "Now go." he cast one skeptical look at the young man on the table before leaving at last.

"Finally." Beck sighed.

"No kidding." Beck dropped her tools and turned her gaze to Josh. His eyes were partially open and his breathing had strengthened. "I thought he'd never leave."

"You're conscious! Why didn't you say something?"

"Cause I could listen in on Serge's opinion on me." Josh laughed. Beck shook her head, chuckling.

"You're an idiot." Beck laughed. Josh merely smiled. "But a brave idiot."

"I'm a burnt idiot, that's what I am." he argued, trying to sit up. "How bad am I?" 

"Take a look at your arms."

He did. They were bandaged from the fingertips to just above his elbows. "Holy hell."

"You have heavy second degree burns all over your body."

"Just second degree?" Josh asked. He seemed impressed and slightly disbelieving.

"Yeah." Beck answered. "You're pretty damn lucky."

"I'll say."

She set herself at the edge of the table. "I'll go get Serge."

"No, let him rest. He needs it."

"Yeah he does." she agreed. "You want to stay in here then? Rest up a bit."

"I'm good to go-"

"No, you're not." she stated. "At least stay in here so Serge doesn't think I'm a liar."

Josh laughed. "Yeah, good idea."

"He'd never trust me again with you." She headed out the door. Josh sighed and laid back down on the table. 

~

"How is he?" Braz asked as Beck entered the cockpit. Beck smiled and leaned over Serge's seat. 

"He was conscious a few moments ago, but he's sleeping right now. He'll be okay." she patted Serge's shoulder who nodded. Releasing a great sigh of relief, he could now rest easily in his chair. Beck took her seat at the head of the cockpit beside Iverson.

"Our patient doing okay?" he asked. She nodded. 

"Alive and well. Recovering remarkably, though heavily bandaged."

Everyone laughed, which was more of a release of the inner tension and stress they'd been feeling, and a chance to finally feel some relief. 

"How long has he been conscious for?" Serge asked from his seat, checking the hull integrity of the ship once more. 

"Longer than I knew." Beck admitted heavily. 

Serge's brow furrowed slightly. "What does that mean?"

~

Josh's eyes were closed. He was drifting easily between sleep and semi consciousness when he was suddenly aware of another presence in the room. He didn't open his eyes in case the person was intent upon not disturbing him, but when it became apparent that they were not searching for anything, he tensed. 

"You can open your eyes...if you're awake that is." came a heavily accented voice. Josh did so, but winced at the powerful light over his head. He'd forgotten just how bright it was. 

"Did Beck tell you?" he smiled, sitting up stiffly and sighing. Serge took a seat on the cabinet, an apple dancing between his fingers. The Frenchman eyed it curiously, as though considering what he was about to say, then looked up eagerly with a smile at Joshua. 

"You know, it's a funny thing." he started, the apple still dancing between his fingers. 

"What is?" Josh smiled in confusion. 

Serge smiled once again, knowingly. "How ten minutes can give you an entirely different outlook on the rest of your life." Josh said nothing. His eyes stared keenly at the Frenchman, curious and slightly weighted with guilt. "We can't control fate, Joshua. We can't control others, or control the choices they make. But we can control one thing."

"What's that?" Josh's brow perked as his smile broadened. 

"We can tell a person what they mean to us, and let them do with that knowledge what they will. You see, to the world you may be _just _one person," Serge leapt from the cabinet and leaned toward Joshua. "But to one person, you might be the world." Josh smiled and nodded, showing that he understood. But Serge wasn't finished yet. "I have a family. A lovely wife and two beautiful, intelligent, happy children." he explained. "But I never had any brothers. I never had a fraternal relationship with anyone in my life, my whole life. That's something you can miss at times. That bond of male friendship that is so rare. You understand where I'm going with this?" Josh started to nod, then reconsidered. He shook his head and cocked a crooked, cute and confused little grin. Serge smiled and ruffled his hair a bit, entertained at the expression. "Today, I thought I had lost something I never realized I had. Do you know what that's like?"

"Yes." Josh nodded with a knowing glance. 

"Well, I got lucky this time Joshua. But I don't know what will happen in the future. I might not be so lucky, and that's what worries me." he gracefully flipped the apple from his right hand to his left hand, and poked his index finger near Josh' nose. He then laughed, placed his hands on his knees, and smiled sadly. "Today, I thought I'd lost the one and only person I've ever loved like a brother." his face was cast down at the ground now, but his eyes soon returned to Josh's face. 

Josh wasn't stupid, but he wasn't sure how to handle the information being thrown at him. Serge smiled, shook his head, and ruffled Josh's hair once more.

"Don't let it happen again."

With that, he walked out of the medical pod and left Josh to think.


	17. Stones in the Pond

**__**

Author's Note: Sorry about the delay. A bout of depression caused me to stop writing for a small period of time. Feeling better now, at least well enough to write something up. I also have six chapters for the sequel written, it anyone cares to know. ^_^

****

~

Chapter Seventeen

Stones in the Pond

~

Project Destiny Base--Alaska

"Magnetic shielding systems are up."

"Power level's eighty five percent. Increase power to reactor ten."

"All personnel should be clear." James warned through his com system. This was it. The moment of truth.

~

__

Deep Earth Control

Rat was still searching through the internet for some sign or shred of hope. He'd found nothing on Destiny and his time was running out. 

Access denied.

He tried another.

Access denied.

Another still.

Access denied.

One more.

Access denied.

Frustrated beyond belief, Rat slammed his fists into the keyboard. He wanted to give up, but he couldn't afford it. Too much was riding on him doing this.

~

__

Virgil

"No WAIT!" Josh yelled at Zimsky as they worked to release the bombs from their holding compartments. Serge watched in trepidation as one slipped, by fault of Zimsky, and fell to the ground. Braz near swallowed his tongue in the scare. Iverson just sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Oh, God!" Zimsky breathed, resting his head against a beam in the compartment. "Oh, I'm sorry."

Josh sighed and leaned against the wall. He was already exhausted, but there was still work to be done. They'd been at this for over an hour. They were running out of time. 

"Jesus." Serge cursed, inspecting the bomb to see if it was damaged. "We got lucky this time." he informed them, wiping his brow with a handkerchief. 

"Yeah..." Josh nodded and sighed. This wasn't going well.

~

"Okay, she's down." Braz stated, gently cradling the bomb as Zimsky and Iverson let her down gently into position. 

"Approaching the first drop off point." Beck came in through the com. 

~

"We got to be accurate to the second here, boys."

~

"Ready." Josh looked to Serge who had set the timer. He nodded. The others braced themselves for a bolt toward the doorway. 

"And, drop in three-five seconds."

"Timer...on." Serge stated. "Pull it."

He did.

"Go!" Braz flew out followed by Zimsky. Iverson came next, followed by Serge and at last Josh. The door closed swiftly behind him. The others turned to watch as the first part of their mission was completed in full. At least what was within their control.

~

"Clear...and....ejecting." 

Beck flipped the switches. The bomb and the compartment flew off into the murky abyss that was the inner core of Earth. Lost forever to them.

~

__

Deep Earth Control

A telephone rang beside Purcell. Stickley's blazing eyes turned as he answered it. He stared solemnly down at the floor for a few moments until at last;

"All right. Initiate firing sequence."

"Sir." 

"It's our last shot, Stick." 

Stick turned a sullen expression toward the giant screen in the board room. 

"Damn you."

"Damn me? Too late."

~

__

Project Destiny--Alaska

"Ten...nine...eight..."

~

__

Deep Earth Control

Something caught Rat's eye. Last minute he knew, but he couldn't let Josh down now. 

"What's that?" he leaned in closer to the screen. He did a little more navigating until, at long last;

~

__

Project Destiny, Central Access

Popped up on the screen.

"Gotcha!"

~

__

Project Destiny--Alaska

"Four...three...two...Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" All the power columns suddenly died out. 

"Someone's diverted our energy?" Called one of the control operators. "Where the hell's it gone?"

James toggled the computers a bit, then laughed ironically.

"It looks like...Coney Island."

~

__

Deep Earth Control

Rat smiled.

"Your kung-fu is _not _strong."

~

"Well how long will it take to get it back online?" Purcell asked angrily over the little red phone. "Well then get to it!" he slammed the phone down. Immediately his eyes fell upon the timid young man in the corner with the five computers. Immediately he walked over. This was surely no coincidence. 

He peered over the young man's shoulder.

Rat put on a class A act of surprise.

"Oh, hey General." he took a sucker out of his mouth. "Is there something I can do for you?" he smiled brightly and sarcastically. That look a child gives it's parent when they both know who did it, but there's no rightful proof to give full punishment. 

Purcell frowned and turned away, Rat smiling the whole time after him.

~

__

Virgil

"Timer on." Zimsky stated. 

"Clear." Beck came in. "Ejecting."

~

"Clear." Josh was, once again, the last to leave. "Ejecting." The pod was cleared long before she was pulled from her mother frame.

~

"Pull it." Zimsky had now taken a casual note in his instruction giving. Josh toggled with a few more things on the bomb before finally letting it rest and leaving it. Serge and Braz had taken to observing the ships interior motives in the cockpit, while Iverson had taken up commanding again. It was Zimsky and Josh now in the tiny compartment. "All right."

"Lets go throw our last little two hundred megaton stone in the pond." Josh stated with a cynical grin.

"I always wanted to make a splash in nuclear physics." 

They left the pod, chatting idly as they left behind the second to last bomb. 

"You know, that energy propagation stuff you were talking about..."

"Oh, that was high school physics."

"Yeah, it's not exactly-"

"I just took the wavelengths from the core fluid of the MRI readings and-"

"Yeah and multiplied them by eight hundred?"

"Six hundred." 

Josh's brow raised. 

~

The others listened in on the coms from the cockpit. Serge was chatting idly with Braz about movies they had seen or were planning to see when they got home. Iverson threw in his opinion now and again. Beck listened intently though. Her frown deepened. Iverson drew out of the conversation and noted her countenance.

"What is it?"

~

"Surely you compensated for the MRI bias." said Josh with a skeptical glare. The blank look on Zimsky's face made his heart plummet to his toes. Immediately, he bolted back toward the compartment that stored the bomb. "We got to reset the timers!"

~

Beck listened through her coms, as well as Iverson and the others. All exchanged concerned looks. The two men in the butt end of the ship didn't have a whole lot of time. 

~

"Reset the timers! No!" Zimsky yelled, running after him. "It just won't work! It's not the timers. This is not enough!"

"What's not enough?" Josh wiped his brow.

"The last bomb is not enough."

"To complete the wave form."

"Yeah. No. The last bomb has to be thirty percent larger."

Josh stopped, doing the calculations in his head. "That's six or seven pounds of plutonium. Where are we going to get six or seven pounds of plutonium?"

~

Zimsky didn't have time to answer. A flare knocked Virgil off her course, and everyone inside the ship off of their seats. Josh was thrown backward into the wall, and Zimsky forward into the bomb. The joint holding the bomb in place snapped and fell forward, landing directly on Josh's left shoulder. He yelled in pain. 

~

Beck looked up and around in panic. The last thing she heard was Josh cry out. 

"Guys we got hit by an energy flare. I can't keep us on course. Ejecting compartment in fifty seconds."

~

Josh looked up at Zimsky with trepidation and fear in his eyes. After all these times of evading death, he was now at last going to meet his end.

"No, Beck! No, wait! No! Push it!"

Josh grit his teeth against the pain.

"You push it!" He snarled.

~

"Come on guys, I can't hear you." Beck stated. 

~

Zimsky couldn't pull it off on his own, and there was no way he could reach the cockpit in time to ask the others for help. The coms were down. There was no hope it seemed. He tried to roll it off, but Josh only hollered again in pain.

"It's got my shoulder!" He hissed through clenching teeth. "Push!"

"Guys?" Beck came again. "Clear!"

~

"Guys clear the compartment! What are you doing?" 

Serge flew from his seat, Braz following after and Iverson taking up the rear. Beck bit her lip and tried desperately to quell the shaking in her stomach. Something was very, very wrong, and it wasn't getting better. Even worse, they didn't have time to make it better. 

~

"I think the flare has knocked the coms out!"

"I can't get it, Josh. I can't get it." Zimsky, covered in sweat and eyes brimming in tears of frustration, looked sadly into the eyes of his comrade. 

"Go..." Josh breathed. "Just go."

"I can't." Zimsky nearly sobbed.

"Okay. Go."

"I'm sorry." Zimsky breathed, swallowing hard against the tears. "I'm sorry."

"Can you hear me?" Beck rang in once more. "I'm correcting course now!" 

"Joshua!" Serge's voice echoed through the corridor. Immediately Virgil lunged forward, taking everyone with her. Serge flew backward and out of the corridor. Braz caught him but slipped and fell into Iverson who was pinned against the metal wall. Zimsky fell forward and skidded across, hitting his head on the way down. Josh fell forward, along with the bomb, clutching his numbed arm and shoulder painfully. 

"Ejecting compartments in ten seconds, can you here me?" 

"Zimsky!" Josh yelled. The man stirred where he lay. The bomb was now stuck beneath one of the beds in the living quarters, leaving everyone safe from being crushed and pinned, a guaranteed death. Zimsky stood up groggily and moved forward, falling into the open space of the last free compartment. Josh moved clumsily after him, groping with his one good arm and desperately pulling himself forward. He was able to crawl beneath the last door that was closing and hold desperately onto the wall as Virgil shuddered with her second to last compartment ejecting from her frame. 

"Ejecting."

"That's...that's it." Josh breathed. He couldn't focus his eyes due to all the pain he was now experiencing. But they'd done it. One more to go after this, and they were done. They could go home.

~

Josh crept down into the engine room to get the fuel reactor. Zimsky had told them it was the only way. It would leave them void of any power source, and a way home, but they'll have done their part, and with that, could be happy. 

It seemed awkward that Zimsky would suggest this plan. But it was all they had. Zimsky understood that now. They all did. 

They had three minutes to get this next bomb set and off on it's merry little way. That wasn't very long. Josh prayed that it was simply all they needed.

~

The others waited patiently for Doctor Keyes return. They didn't have to wait long. Zimsky had started when the power went out, but everyone else had been fully prepared. 

"This is it." Braz stated. "No going back."

All nodded. 

A few minutes later, Josh came hobbling into the cockpit. He collapsed in the isle, not really caring if he was in the way. Serge, of course, reached him first.

"Could someone take off my gloves?" He asked. Serge pulled them off, then turned and demanded the first aid kit.

"We don't have enough power to get back." he stated. 

Serge nodded. "I know."

Josh sighed, and Serge took the note for what it meant. All this time they'd worked to make sure they'd get back for the Frenchman's sake. In the end, fate had dealt them a sour deal after all their hard efforts. 

"I'm sorry."

Serge smiled. There was no need for words between them. Apologies were no longer necessary. They came to do what was required of them, and they had succeeded. Serge couldn't have asked for anything more. Still in the isle, he personally bandaged the young man's hands. The others sat by and waited for the end to come.

**__**

Author's Note: Yeah, it would have made more sense to have all the bombs set up at once, since everyone was there to help. But I didn't want to think too much on extra dialogue and stuff like that. It's 10:16pm. I really don't want to think at all. But here it is. It's done. Three chapters left! Woo Ho! ^_^


	18. Healing the Earth

**__**

Author's Note: Hi everyone. Me again. Does anyone read these? I'm not so sure you do. Anyway, two more after this. I'm thinking of getting them all done in one shot and then just uploading them randomly throughout the week. No guarantee. It's 8:49pm right now, and I'm incredibly tired. Don't really feel like writing, but I do it anyway simply because writer's instinct calls when willing inspiration does not. I have to write to keep myself busy lest I result to doing homework instead. And that isn't very fun. 

Anyway, here is chapter eighteen. 

[Hugs Serge]

Almost done, Sergie!

Serge: I'm getting a restraining order against you.

But...but...but....

Serge: Leave me alone!

~

Chapter Eighteen

Healing the Earth

~

Virgil

Virgil drifted like a dead stone through the material of the Earth's outer core. She was powerless. Nothing more than another piece of matter drifting through her heated molten magma. But inside, six people were waiting. Waiting for an end that they had known all along would come.

"One minute to the first detonation." Beck stated, looking idly at her watch. Everyone was sitting in their original seats now. Iverson was at Beck's left hand side. Behind her sat Josh, hands double bandaged and fingers wrapped lightly so as to still provide minor movement. At Josh's left was Serge, sweating and hazy eyed. Behind Serge sat a barely conscience Zimsky, and at his right hand sat a sullen Braz. He petted his ship idly, happy and proud that she had performed so well for them for this long. He was sorry to say goodbye to her. Almost. "And twelve until the blast hits us."

Josh sighed, his fingers playing with the bandages wrapped around his arms. 

"I was hoping we'd suffocate to death first."

Some of them smiled in the mock humor that the young man tried to express. 

~

On the furthest side of the inner core, the first nuke went off. The process to breath life back into the planet had begun.

~

The Emergency Support System Monitor began to buzz warningly. The temperature had reached one hundred and twenty two point zero six degrees. A critical point for those inside. It really wasn't that bad, Josh believed, considering that just a few inches past the unobtainium shield around them the temperature was well over nine thousand degrees.

Everyone did what they could to try and ignore the incessant alarm that warned them of their imminent doom. Zimsky was nearly sleeping, Serge following after. Braz had his forehead rested in his right hand, his eyes closed. He spoke a silent prayer that no one heard, but everyone trusted in. 

Iverson's breath steadied as he drifted, or tried to drift, into a blissful, dreamless sleep. Beck and Josh did what they could to relax, their hearts beating too furiously with fear to try and rest in their last minutes.

But suddenly, something struck Josh as awkward. He had learned in the three months they had taken to built this ship everything he could about it. 

He looked up at the tungsten-titanium matrix model that Braz had hung up on the ceiling of the cockpit in Virgil. He'd been right to assume it looked like a rear view mirror decoration in a car. It had served as such throughout most of the journey. But sight of that model suddenly inspired Josh to make a daring move. One that promised a chance for survival not only for Earth, but for the heroes who had been sent to sacrifice their lives as her savior. 

Sitting up in a hurry, he stared straight into the center of the model, desperately trying to make his eyes focus. A spark in his brain ignited, and the ultimate plan for survival formed in his head.

"Beck." he gasped, sitting up. He rushed to her seat and shook her awake. "Beck. Beck. What could you do if I got you enough power to fire the impeller? Maybe not the laser but the impeller?"

She eyed him suspiciously. This seemed like a desperate attempt to be busy.

"What? From where?"

"The heat of the core." he replied in exhausted joy. "It's nine thousand degrees. Unobtainium converts heat to energy. So this whole damn ship is like a big, old solar panel!" Braz looked up in interest. Josh had something. "Come on, I need your help."

Serge and the others watched as they left. Braz bit his lip and followed, eager to see what the young man had cooked up.

~

The second nuke went off. Earth was steadily coming back to life. But Virgil's time was running out.

~

__

Deep Earth Control

"Number Two's going!" one of the board readers cried out in joy.

"Come on. Come on."

Stickley wasn't watching the core churning. Her eyes were focused on the motionless signal on the other side of the explosion. Why weren't they moving?

~

__

Virgil  


Beck, Josh, and Braz worked frantically within the depths of Virgil's engineering compartment. They were basically reforming her entire structure. They were diverting all her power to one main source, and the was the absorption of the heat from the core into the ship. There time was running out, but if they worked quickly enough, they just might have a change.

~

The third nuke blew. The core started to shoot flares and heat up some more as the magma began to churn beneath, over, and around Virgil's surface. Things were heating up, but time was still running out.

~

"For here...in the great...infinite...unknowable...man can come to know....the most important thing of all....himself."

Zimsky sighed and drifted into a dark sleep. Serge lifted his head. Zimsky's incessant muttering was what had been keeping him conscious all this time. The fact that it had now stopped was not only a problem for him, but unnerving for Zimsky's sake. 

Clumsily he lifted himself from his chair and leaned over Zimsky.

"Zimsky? Zimsky wake up!" he shook the old man. "Zimsky?"

"We need to hurry." Iverson breathed from his seat. Serge looked up with a frown. "Or we're not going to have enough time."

The Frenchman frowned. He had all the faith in the world in Josh, but some things could not be beaten. Serge typically didn't believe in fate, but he knew that some things were unbeatable. Josh was smart, he was determined, he was young and strong. All the things a kid like him should and needed to be. But he wasn't God, and he couldn't beat all the world working against him.

At least, Serge didn't think so.

~

The fourth nuke went off, and not too far after, the fifth. A reaction occurred, and suddenly the molten magma began to churn. It was spinning slow at first, but soon picked up speed as the mass of the liquid metal elements began to push against each other, causing the churning to gain more and more speed by the second. A reaction began, and nature finished the course. The core was rotating again. Earth was reborn.

~

__

Deep Earth Control

The core-based satellite image revealed this to everyone on the surface world who had taken part in this project. 

"WE'VE GOT FULL ROTATION!!!" Someone screamed from the boards below. Papers and pens and hats flew in the air, falling back to the ground with no one caring about them. Embraces where shared, tears were shed, and a full celebration was in order. 

"It's turning!"

"All right!"

Even Stickley clapped and cheered, but the sheer spark in her eye told them that this was not over yet. Their crew still needed to get back alive.

~

__

Virgil

The war wasn't over for those above or below. 

Beck hammered at the last cable, trying desperately to break it free.

"C'mon Beck, where is it?" Josh yelled impatiently. Finally the damn thing came lose. She threw it to Braz who moved with admirable grace to reach the back panel where Josh was welding everything together. His brain was addled by the theory of this working, he simply trusted that Josh's theory was correct. "Come on. Come on, hurry up. Is that the last one?"

"Yeah." Braz answered. Beck waited, then when she got the signal, bolted back to the cockpit. Serge was in his seat, vividly awake now. Iverson was shifting a bit here and there, but Zimsky was completely out of it. She hoped he was okay.

Soon after her came Josh, and at last Braz. They looked around, waiting.

"Give it a couple seconds." said Josh.

"What's happening?" Serge asked.

"Shh." Braz demanded. They all waited, weary for any sort of change. Finally, a humming reached their ears, and the lights of the corridor behind them illuminated one by one. The computers flickered on and the controls began to beep and buzz as they should. But the brightest lights came from the eyes of the crew members as life breathed back into the ship once more. Serge jumped from his seat and embraced Josh with happy tears in his eyes. He then moved to embrace Serge. Beck bent over to hug Iverson who was already pressing and maneuvering controls. Images of the core shot back up onto the surveillance screens. Hope was rekindled, and life restored. They were going to make it after all!

"It worked!" Josh laughed in disbelief. He turned to embrace Beck, but instead met her full on the lips. Neither one of them cared that the others were watching, nor acknowledged the knowing smiles between the three conscious crew members. 

__

It's about time. Serge thought with a chuckle.

"All right you two, let's get moving." Iverson stated. Josh plopped down happily in his seat along with the others. Braz made sure Zimsky was harnessed and then buckled himself up into his seat.

~

A giant energy bubble began to form in the Earth's core from the last detonation. As it neared Virgil, her propeller began to spin at immeasurable speeds. Iverson and Beck steered her toward their original entrance, praying for an easy path home.

~

"Get ready to pull a few G's." Iverson warned the crew. All braced themselves for the ride of their lives. The second, since they had breached the Earth's crust.

~

Instantaneously, Virgil was flung forward. She hurdles through the air at hundreds of miles per second, but did not stop there.

~

"Four hundred and twenty knots." Beck read.

"This is more like it." Iverson smiled. 

"Four forty."

~

__

Deep Earth Control

The base began to shake and tremor with an unnerving strength. Nothing fell or collapsed, but it was enough to make everyone nervous.

"So, Rat, what's the center of this quake?" Purcell asked bitterly.

"It's everywhere!" Rat stood and answered with eagerness and amazement. "It's one giant shockwave! The planet's healing itself!"

~

__

Virgil

"At this speed we're going to be home in a third of the time." Josh stated as they flew through the mantle. 

~

__

Paris, France

The streets of Paris shook beneath the shoppers and tourists that stood enjoying themselves beneath the shadows of the Eiffel Tower. All eyes looked up to see massive storm clouds forming, and then suddenly dissolving. No one could explain it, it was a frightening and yet mysteriously relieving experience.

~

__

Saudi Arabia

The deserts danced and shifted from the giant shock wave that moved the floor beneath it. Two weary travelers watched in awe and fear as the sands slithered like serpents toward and then away from them. The healing process was spreading. Earth was catching up with her overdue schedule.

~

__

Virgil

Now that she was smaller, Virgil was much easier to maneuver. Her turns were quicker and more precise, and her driving was much more accurate. Iverson smiled. This wasn't so bad.

"As long as we can surf these magma flows we'll be okay." Beck stated to the crew. "Let's just pray we don't run into any dead ends, or we're going to miss those lasers." Josh looked up at her seat with slight trepidation.

Suddenly they reached a fork in the road.

"Okay, Navigator. Which way?" Iverson came in.

"We've got greater fluid density on the left." he added a smile. "Go with the flow."

"Uh-huh." Iverson did just that.

~

__

Deep Earth Control

The signal was now reading from the Mantle, beeping fast.

"Bill, where are they headed?" Stickley called from her position on the board.

"Looks like she found a space between some tectonic plates somewhere near Hawaii."

Stick smiled. Everything was going good.

~

__

Virgil

"When I get back I'm taking a vacation." Braz gritted his teeth firmly.

"Where are you going?" Serge asked with an interested smile.

"I don't know. The Caribbean, Bahamas...or maybe even Hawaii."

"Well if you get lucky maybe that's where we'll come up at."

Braz smiled. 

"An immediate vacation. Sounds nice."

Serge pushed his bottom lip forward in consideration, nodded and shrugged his shoulders. 

"Can't complain."

"No, no I can't." Josh agreed.

~

"Josh?" Iverson sounded concerned.

"Yeah?"

"They're closing in on us too fast, I don't know if we can..."

"We've got it." Iverson stated. 

~

__

Deep Earth Control

SIGNAL LOST flashed across the screen. Bill, solemn and disappointed, turned his saddened gaze to Stickley.

"Um...w-we lost them, Stick, and I..." he turned, unable to meet her eyes.

Stickley through off her headset communicators and turned her gaze away. 

After all that, they'd lost everyone.

**__**

Author's Note: Oh don't start fussing you know they really didn't! This happened in the movie. Don't flip, everyone will be okay. Yes even the unconscious Zimsky. ^_^ Ciao, mes amis. Two more chapters left.


	19. Saved by Whales

**__**

Author's Note: YAY! Almost done! Or are we? How's that sequel sounding everyone?

****

~

Chapter Nineteen

Saved by Whales

~

Four Hours Later, Pacific Ocean

Virgil had finally escaped the enclosed atmosphere of the Earth's underground. She'd gone to hell and back, and brought everyone back with her. She flew up a few meters into the watery world of Earth, and then fell dead to the ground, once more a solid mass in an uncaring world.

The lights and electronics died immediately. Iverson toggled the switches and gears without success.

"Where'd our power go?"

"Well, we were powered by the heat." said Josh, flipping a few dead switches. "It's stone cold down here." There was a momentary pause as everyone sighed in disappointment. "Well, look on the bright side." Josh smiled sadly. "At least we're not going to boil to death."

Serge laughed. Iverson and the others merely smiled. Beck turned her chair around to face him with a cynical grin.

"You always look on the bright side?"

Josh looked up, a light kindling in his eyes. He nodded his head vividly and eagerly.

"Always."

Iverson turned to face the rest of his crew.

"All right now, lets assess: we've got no communications. We're probably eight hundred feet down, but we might as well be eight hundred miles. We're in an Unobtainium cigar tube with the sonar signature of a rock. We've got just enough power to make the ultrasonics burp, but no one's listening on those frequencies anyway, and...nobody even knows we're alive."

Josh rested his head on the back of his chair. His eyes considered the ceiling momentarily, then his gaze dropped back down to the expectant Iverson.

"Okay. Give me a minute on this one."

~

__

Off the Coast of Hawaii, the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln

Purcell had 'rented' out an armed aircraft carrier to obtain their fallen heroes, or what some believed was left of them. On board was Doctor Leveque's wife and two children, as well as some distant friends of Doctor's Zimsky and Brazzelton who had known about the operation at hand. Fortunately, they were not in the room at the time of Purcell's complaints resembling an annoying Shakespearean soliloquy.

"This is hopeless."

"Come on General, we've got to be getting close." Came the ever looming voice of the one person Purcell hated most. Rat had come along, why or how he didn't know. He was almost certain the kid had stowed away, but officials assured him that Rat had had permission to board. Something he'd noted to check into later. "We can't just..."

"Mr. Rat, even if they were still alive, there's no way they could contact us-"

A phone rang.

"Bridge."

__

Sounds like a good reason to look harder. Rat thought to himself.

The man who answered the phone looked over at the arguing pair. 

"Skipper, Combat relays that our sub has something on the sonar."

"Where do they thing-"

"Bill, put it up on the hydrophone." Rat interrupted. 

Bill did just that. They waited in eagerness for a few seconds before the sound resonated through the station.

"Whales, sir." 

"They're a long way off their usual path," the Captain commented. "But that's not uncommon since that, uh...what are they calling it? Orbital wobble?"

"Yeah, that's what they call it." Purcell stated. He turned, his face solemn and dark. "Well, thank you very much Captain, but I think we're done here."

"General." He saluted. Purcell returned it and left the station, his frown deepening with every step. Rat watched him leave, angry and hurt. He'd let Josh down.

"J.O. This is the Captain. Stand down from SAR Operations."

~

Purcell stood and waited calmly with Stickley. He eyed Rat walking somberly across the landing strip as they awaited their chopper to land to take them home. It wasn't going to be a happy journey. Already Purcell feared telling Mrs. Leveque that her husband would not be returning home, or hearing from his own mouth that Doctor Zimsky would never be completing that next book deal. It seemed so wrong. And at the same time, he feared telling General Childs that his daughter had been lost in a mission that he could never know anything about.

How he would miss her bright, smiling, youthful face every day at headquarters, or hearing her perky voice come over the coms from the next space mission. Never again, he realized, watching the setting sun. Never again.

~

Rat stared at the rotating propeller on the chopper for long minutes. Everything was lost. He felt so useless. Of all things, Rat had failed at the one thing that was inexcusable. Failed at the one thing that was the most important. He had failed his friendship to Josh, his promise to lead them safely out of there. The promise Rat had made himself when Josh alone stuck up for him in front of the others, taking on Purcell, Zimsky, and even the doubts of his French friend, all because he had trust in him. He had failed. That was the worst feeling in all the world.

Yet, as he stared at those spinning propellers, something happened. A spark ignited in the technologically advanced brain of the young man who had thought he'd lost everything, and soon realized that it was all just a little further away then they'd expected. He turned and bolted down landing strip, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"It's whales! It's whales! Hey! General! Stick! It's whales! The ultrasonics! They're singing to them! You gotta find the whales!"

~

A few specialists took a chopper and flew it over the strongest resonance point where the whales were breaching and singing. 

"Alpha X Ray, this is November Echo six one zero. I'm changing-" What they suddenly saw amazed them. Not just one or two, but ten to twelve pods were dancing and spiraling in the water, all around one designated point! "Hold on, I'm seeing those whales now. Whoa!" One jumped out of the water just a few yards from them. "Okay, ball's in the water. This is neat. Those whales are circling something." They pulled up to get a better view. "Hold on. We've got a strong echo here. Depth eight hundred feet. There-there's something down there. There's definitely something down there."

~

Some divers broke the water surface and sunk a few yard below to get a better observation of the process taking place. One looked to the other and gave a thumbs up. Nothing could go wrong now as Virgil broke from the shadows of the underworld forever to greet once more the light of day, and the kiss of the sun.

~

__

Virgil

Everyone was now huddled at the back of the craft as Virgil journey straight up toward the surface. No one could be happier now to know that they were going home at long last.

"I told you pulsing the ultrasonics would work." Josh grinned at the others.

"Do you ever get tired of being right?" Beck smiled.

"Yes." Josh admitted. The others chuckled. "So what's next?"

"A shower." Beck smiled. "Then back to NASA, I guess."

"Home." Serge stated afterward with a longing smile. "See the kids. I'm taking a week...no a month..._two_ months off of work."

"Two?" Josh raised surprised eyebrows. 

"Yeah. Spending time with the kids, and I'll probably consider early retirement from this day on." Everyone laughed.

"I have a book deal to make." Zimsky smiled, now fully conscious and aware of his surroundings.

"Two, wasn't it?" Braz asked.

"Two. Yeah. I was thinking that I'd have some help on that one." He turned and smiled at Braz. "Interested?"

Braz grinned, slightly embarrassed. "Naw." he snorted.

"Well I mean come on, I'm going to have to have someone tell me the ingenious plan behind this ship. How else am I going to-"

"Oh so you can take more credit for-"

"What are you talking about, you know I..."

The argument persisted, but the others ignored it, as they had so wisely learned how to do in the days prior to their homecoming. 

"What about you?" Serge asked with a hopeful grin. Josh smiled, considering.

"Deep-dish pepperoni pizza, green peppers, onions, extra mushrooms--than a shower, a few weeks in the classroom...the Paris."

Serge smiled.

"Ah! You remembered!"

"Remembered what?"

"Your promise." 

"Oh, yeah."

"Back to the classroom?" Beck asked. Josh nodded. "NASA could use a few good men, you know."

Josh looked up and saw the hint in her eyes. He only hoped no one noticed the reddening in his features.

"Yeah." he sighed. "Unfortunately so could my freshman geophysics students."

They both sighed, trying to hide their disappointment. Serge and Bob tried to hide their own as well. There was a moment of silence, before at last Beck began talking once more.

"You know what makes me really, really angry?" everyone considered her thoughtfully then. A frown, dark and dangerous, passed through her features, making her seem older and more mature than she should be. But they assumed that they had all been changed that way. After what they had been through, it would be awkward if they hadn't changed. "No one's every going to know about this? Not so much what we've done, but what could have happened."

"Who risked their lives for the world." Zimsky stated.

"Who risked their lives for us." Serge added. 

Josh smiled. This sounded like a job for a friend of his. 

"Unless of course, it all got out."

Beck eyed him. 

"That's unthinkable."

Josh grinned mysteriously. That grin that Serge knew spelled youthful trouble.

"Yeah..."

**__**

Author's Note: Oo la la! What's next?


	20. Heroes

**__**

Author's Note: Booyah! Last one! Are you sad? I am.

I changed the chapter title because I don't believe in letting heroes, whether they survive or don't, go unsung. It's so disrespectful! And it made me so angry in the movie! But at least Serge got the credit he deserved, even though he SHOULDN'T HAVE DIED!

Tcheky Karyo: Cool it, it was just a character I played. I'm still alive.

(Squeals and hugs Karyo)

Karyo: Get off of me!

^_^

****

~

Chapter Twenty

Heroes

~

Venice California, One Week Later...

A strange, awkward looking young man walked into a Californian cyber cafe. It was filled with techno junkies and kids just looking for a good time with computers. But this one, known as Rat, had another idea in mind. 

Taking the most discrete table in the least obvious of corners, be pulled out a few government files, a hot pocket, and a drink ungodly high in caffeine. 

He loaded in his mini lap top a disk titled "Kung Fu" and waited. Then, with an evil grin and a few button presses, he did what he was a master at.

"Okay, here we go."

All the computers within the cafe, and most of California were suddenly infected with his "virus". It was a beautiful thing.

"Sweet."

He then began to load the files. unsung_heroes.doc. The pictures flew by in an instant. Commander Bob Iverson, Doctor Serge Leveque, Doctor Edward Brazzelton, Doctor Conrad Zimsky, Doctor Joshua Keyes, and Major Rebecca Childs. The files were acquired, and within moments, began spreading. 

Within moments, news reached Seattle, Las Vegas, Houston, Miami, Chicago, San Cruz, Rio De Janero, Washington D.C., Paris, Rome, London, Moscow, all over the world. CNN, NBC, ABC, BBC, everywhere. 

"It is now emerging that the world owes it's survival to the heroism of six remarkable individuals--Shuttle Commander Robert Iverson--"

"This extraordinary craft--"

"French scientist Dr. Serge Leveque--"

"Was captained by NASA astronaut, Dr. Bob Iverson--"

"Doctor Edward Brazzelton--"

"Edward Brazzelton is a name..."

"Doctor Conrad Zimsky--"

"Doctor Conrad Zimsky was a part of this team--"

"Doctor Joshua Keyes of the Chicago University--"

"All of Capitol Hill is asking, what is Project Destiny?"

"And Air Force Major Rebecca Childs."

Rat smiled, removing his sun glasses to view the exchange that the world needed to know.

"Destiny, meet world. World, meet Destiny."

The secret was now out. The world had her heroes, and she knew now who they were.

~

**__**

The Core: Not All Heroes Die

By: Beth "Eladriewen" Meadows

For all of the heroes out there. But especially for mine. ^_^

__

~

~The end song on the Core movie is entitled "Echelon" and is performed by the band 30 Seconds to Mars.

~Song played in bar scene with Josh and Serge is entitled "Weren't You the One" and is performed by Sherry Williams.

~The song "Sunblind" is performed by B.T. 


End file.
